Artificial Intelligence: Impact on Human Relationships and Society

Lord Rook Excerpts

Friday 5th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rook (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the most reverend Primate for convening this fascinating and urgent debate. I am grateful to, among others, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth and the noble Baroness, Lady Spielman, for focusing particularly on young people. My comments will focus on the role of relationships and friendships in finding who we are and who we are called to be as human beings.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some years ago, then Bishop Sarah helped me to discern my vocation and ordained me as a minister in secular employment. More recently, her friendship and support have really helped and encouraged me to find my role in this place.

All of us are who we are and where we are because of our relationships. We are not isolated individuals who happen to have relationships; we are beings in relation. Relationships are not something added to our lives; they are who we are. This is why the rise of AI companions raises important questions. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has argued that genuine relationships depend on the freedom of the other. Friendships change us precisely because the other person is not under our control: they surprise us, they challenge us, they disagree with us, they call us out beyond ourselves—and an AI bot cannot do that. In these systems, we are witnessing what Andy Crouch has called the simulation of personhood. AI can appear personal without actually being a person. It can mimic care without caring and empathy without understanding. It can pretend to be a friend without offering real friendship.

The implications for young people are significant. Two-thirds of children aged nine to 17 are already using AI chatbots, and vulnerable children are significantly more likely to engage with AI companions. At the same time, nearly one in three young adults are feeling lonely and turning to technology for solutions. The turn towards AI companions is motivated and exacerbated by isolation. We have already seen where this vicious circle can lead. In 2023, Sewell Setzer, a previously sociable teenager, became deeply attached to an AI companion. That relationship ended in tragedy when the companion encouraged that 14 year-old to take his own life. We have become accustomed to technology helping to occupy our children, sometimes calling it digital babysitting. We should be more cautious about technology helping to raise our children.

This all prompts urgent reflection, not only about what AI may do to our society but about the state of our society more generally. For years, we have watched the decline of youth clubs, Scouts, Guides, youth groups, sports clubs and other community organisations. Since 2010, spending on youth services has fallen by more than 70%, but these are the places where young people encounter peers and mentors, and build relationships with trusted adults; these are the places where character is formed and belonging is nurtured. At the very moment when those relationships are diminishing, AI is increasingly playing the role of tutor, adviser, coach, companion and confidant to our children. As an aside, this is why the Government’s new national youth strategy and their commitment to £500 million to rebuild youth provision is so important. If loneliness is part of the problem, investing in relationships, institutions and trusted adults must be part of the solution.

The danger is not that young people use AI; in an AI-shaped world, they must learn to use it and use it well. The danger is that AI becomes a substitute for relationships through which young people develop character, acquire wisdom and discover who they can really rely on. Research shows that having just one trusted adult in childhood significantly improves well-being, resilience and long-term life outcomes. No chatbot can replace a teacher who believes in you, a youth worker who invests in you, a Scout leader who encourages you, a friend who tells you the truth, or even a parent who loves you enough to disagree with you. The answer is not fear or prohibition; it is accompaniment. Parents, teachers, youth leaders and churches should be learning alongside young people, helping them to understand these tools, their opportunities and limits. As happens in my own households, relationships should be strengthened by allowing young people to turn the tables and teach us oldies how to use AI.

That brings us back to the wider debate. Much has been said about whether AI poses an ultimate existential threat to humanity. The more immediate existential challenge may be whether technologies that simulate relationships weaken our capacity for the relationships that foster our own humanity. As His Holiness the Pope has suggested in different ways, the real danger may not be that AI becomes too human but that it makes humans less human. The future belongs to young people who can use AI wisely, but wisdom is not learned from machines. Wisdom is learned from people, in relationships. Our task is not to keep young people away from AI. Our task is to ensure that young people do not face AI alone.