“ChatGPT is not your friend”: how Harrisites are setting boundaries with AI

A conversation with ChatGPT can feel very human. People might say hello or use the word “please,” and many ask it for advice. However, many students at Townsend Harris say they are careful not to confuse AI chatbots with real people.

A 2026 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 64% of teenagers in the United States had used AI chatbots. Among these teenagers, 16% had used the technology for casual conversations, and 12% had used it to get more personal support. Another study by Common Sense Media in 2025 found that 72% of teenagers had tried talking to AI companions, and about one-third had used them for social interactions or relationships. Among teenagers who had talked to AI companions, about one-third had chosen AI instead of a real person for an important conversation, and about one-quarter had shared personal information.

In interviews with The Classic, Townsend Harris students generally said they do not treat their conversations with AI as personal relationships. They said they use AI to study or answer random questions, much as they would use a search engine. Most said they speak to chatbots in a neutral way.

Some students said they are polite when talking to AI, while others said they are blunt and “straight to the point.” Almost all said there is a clear difference between using AI as a helpful tool and treating it as a replacement for a teacher or friend.

Senior Tahiyya Karim said she tries to make her AI prompts “very detailed and clear,” while also making an effort to be polite. “I don’t like the idea that AI remembers what you tell it,” she said. Even though she is polite to AI, Tahiyya said it cannot replace talking to a real person. “AI will just tell you what you want to hear whereas a peer or an instructor will tell you what you need,” she said. “ChatGPT is not your friend.”

Sophomore Nayyirah Dewan said she sees AI as a tool for finding information. “It’s more like simply asking a question for an answer,” she said. She said she would not “go out of my way to speak to it like a friend,” but gives more details when she wants the chatbot to explain something further. She sometimes uses AI to find information or answer random questions, but does not want it to make choices that could affect her own opinions.

Sophomore Mia Maddison described her way of talking to AI as “very orderly and straight to the point.” She said she mainly uses ChatGPT to review material before tests and create practice questions.

Junior Esmeralda Peterson said she speaks kindly to AI. “I think it’s the empath in me that always wants to show appreciation for assistance,” she said. However, she said she rarely uses AI, partly because she is concerned about its effect on the environment. Esmeralda also said she does not support using AI for “personal or emotional reasons like relief or boredom.”

One student who spoke to The Classic asked not to be named. The student said AI can be helpful when a teacher is not available late at night, but it should only be used as a tool.

Students also said that mainly using AI as a tool can still change their habits.

Tahiyya said that when she gets stuck on a problem, she is starting to turn to AI right away instead of trying to solve it herself. Another student who asked to remain anonymous said their “will to try solving difficult problems has decreased” since they started using AI.

Nayyirah said this is one way AI can become a problem. “The act of just trying is much more important than always getting the right answer in everything,” she said.

AI may also affect how people interact with others.

Character.AI lets users talk to AI “characters” in made-up roleplaying situations and has become especially popular. In a 2025 study, researchers studied 318 Reddit posts written by teenagers who used Character.AI. Some said they spent more than 15 hours a day on the platform and either lost sleep or skipped meals. Others said they started ignoring friends in real life because they were so focused on talking to AI.

For now, THHS students said they are not interested in this kind of interaction. They may say “please” when talking to ChatGPT, but most said they still want to keep the relationship strictly professional.