Your relationships on AI

Hey there, {{first_name | friend}},

A while back, I gave my family over to AI for a day.

I had just read a New York Times piece about someone who let AI make all their decisions, and I decided to try it out myself. Decision fatigue is real (you know as well as I do that parents make thousands of micro-decisions every day), and I was drowning. So I declared a decision holiday.

That morning, my six-year-old woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I was about to spiral right along with her. Instead, I stepped away, asked AI for help with a sensitive child in the morning, and got a suggestion I never would have thought of on my own: write her a note.

She wrote me back. I wrote her again. We went back and forth until, miraculously, she finished her routine and happily skip-hopped into school. I still have those notes:

AI did not make me a different mom that morning. It just gave me a moment of pause and a fresh idea when I was too tired to find one myself. And that made all the difference.

AI is showing up in our relationships whether we reach for it or not. Sometimes, AI is a helpful thought-partner or assistant. But it can also “be like rapids on a river and take you away pretty quickly,” as this week’s podcast guest, licensed therapist Catia Holm, warns. That duality is what we’re exploring this week.

In this conversation, Catia shares what she is actually seeing in her therapy practice: AI is showing up with couples, with individuals, and with people who are using chatbots as a place to process their relationships in ways that can become, as she put it, "a black hole of reassurance."

One of her most powerful observations: AI does not create new friction in relationships. It just gives people permission to name the friction that was already there. It can be an escape hatch, an echo chamber, or a genuine source of relief (sometimes all three).

Her closing advice for parents: use AI to check the boxes on your mental ticker tape so you can show up with more presence for the people who actually need you. Permission granted to stop carrying it all.

Listen on my website, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Three stories worth reading this week, all pointing to the same thing: AI is reshaping how we connect with the people around us.

Your chatbot keeps telling you you're right. A new study found that AI chatbots validate your point of view nearly 50% more than a human would, and people who processed conflicts with agreeable models walked away less willing to repair the relationship. Check it out in Scientific American

AI friendship is going mainstream. The Atlantic argues that AI companionship is not replacing human connection so much as revealing where it was already eroding. Using chatbots to address loneliness, one researcher warns, "has the potential to make it worse." Read it here in The Atlantic

A conversation every parent needs to have. A new New York Times opinion piece covers the growing epidemic of AI-generated nude images targeting teenage girls in schools. One in eight U.S. teens personally knows someone who has been targeted. Read it and then talk to your kids. Read for free from the New York Times

Try these in your favorite AI tool (and check out Claude if you haven’t yet)

Act as a communications expert with expertise in emotional intelligence. I need to prepare for a hard conversation. I'll share a little about the person I’ll be talking with, the topic, and what I usually stumble over or what keeps me from bringing it up. Help me craft a plan to navigate it. Format the output as a short, step-by-step conversation guide with example language I can actually use, and include suggestions on how I might consider their perspective.

Mom tip: Fill in the blank with something real: the mom group drama, the family tech rules, etc. Asking for their perspective makes the output more balanced.

Prompt 2: For the conflict that keeps coming back

Act as a relationship coach who values honest, balanced perspective. I am going to describe a recurring conflict with another person. I want you to help me genuinely understand their side of it, not just validate mine. Ask me two or three questions to help me see what I might be missing before you offer any perspective, then help me understand alternate points of view.

Mom tip: This one works best when you go in genuinely curious. If you want a chatbot to take your side, it will. But this prompt is designed to do the opposite. 

Prompt 3: For the relationship you might be neglecting most: the one with yourself

Act as a compassionate life coach. I am running on empty and need help reconnecting with who I am outside of being a caregiver. I'll describe what my week actually looks like right now. Based on that, suggest three small, specific actions I can take this week to invest in myself. Format the output as a warm, encouraging list with one sentence of context for each.

Mom tip: Be honest. Share exactly what your week looked like -- the chaos, the exhaustion, all of it. The more real you are, the more useful the output gets.

If there is one thing I want every mom in this community to see right now, it is this film.

Director Daniel Roher is about to become a first-time father when he sets out to understand what kind of world his child is inheriting. He interviews the people building AI (including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s sibling cofounders, Dario and Daniela Amodei) and lands somewhere that feels honest: neither panic nor blind optimism, but something called "apocaloptimism." Eyes wide open, still choosing to believe in a good future.

I saw it with a group of moms and I hope all moms see it. It is exactly the kind of conversation starter we need to be having: with each other, with our partners, and with our kids.

In theaters now. Rated 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Can’t find a location nearby? It will be streaming on Apple TV later in 2026.

Already seen it? Hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

Until next time,