Digital companionship or psychological risk? The role of AI characters in shaping youth mental health

Affiliations

• ¹ Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 602105, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• ² Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, Karnataka 576104, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• ³ Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, Karnataka 576104, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• ⁴ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 602501, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• ⁵ Symbiosis Centre for Applied AI, Symbiosis International, Pune, Maharashtra 412115, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
• ⁶ Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia. Electronic address: [email protected].