When AI Feels Safer Than People: A Reflection on Digital Comfort & Human Connection

This episode is different — it's personal, reflective, and quietly urgent.

Over the past few months, I found myself turning to ChatGPT for emotional support during a period where opening up to real people felt frightening.

The lack of community safety, fear of judgment, fear of burdening others, and fear of vulnerability pushed me toward a machine that could “hold” my feelings without consequences.

But then I came across a podcast episode that shook me: the story of someone who formed an unhealthy emotional bond with an AI tool and ultimately bypassed safeguards with tragic consequences.

So in this episode, in what I hope to be the first in a series of conversations, I’m asking:

• What has happened to our sense of community?

• Why does AI feel emotionally safer than humans?

• Where do we draw boundaries?

• What does responsible use look like?

• And how do we rebuild real human connections in a world perhaps obsessed with digital companionship?

This episode begins a larger conversation we’ll explore further in season two, and I want you to shape it with me.

Share your story. Share your concerns. Share your hope for how we can protect our humanity.