Community grounded.
Action oriented.
Technology — especially AI — is rapidly reshaping how young people connect. Our research arm is dedicated to staying on top of these shifts and forecasting emerging trends, creating an evolving picture of what connection looks like today and where it is heading.
Our goal? To uncover insights that help young people — and those who support them — build a future that prioritizes connection over isolation.
NEWEST RESEARCH
Youth, AI, and the Relationships That Shape them:
Nine Portraits
One of the first large-scale studies to explore how young people’s AI use intersects with their social lives, emotional wellbeing, and the relationships around them.
Surveying 2,400 people ages 13–24, we asked not whether AI is good or bad — but what’s actually happening, for whom, why. What we heard back was a story that was much more nuanced, human, and insightful than the dominant narrative about this generation and this emerging technology.
Let’s Talk About It
This study isn’t the final answer — it’s a launching point. Our hope is that it sparks deeper, more honest conversations about the reality of young people’s AI use, its impact on their social worlds, and what we want to do about it. To help you bring that conversation into your team, your classroom, or your dinner table, we’ve built three companion tools to get you started.
Additional Publications
ONGOING
The Rithm Project Substack
Here you’ll find snapshots of trends and tools we’re watching, real-time glimpses into our research, reflections from young people navigating this terrain, and the personal questions we’re wrestling with as we explore what role AI should play in our own lives.
JULY 31, 2025
5 Prosocial Principles for AI
Through interviews with 30 young people ages 14–18 and a market scan of generative AI tools—from mainstream products to social-impact and clinical applications—we identified a clear pattern: some AI strengthens young people’s capacity for real-world connection, while other tools quietly displace it.
This work led to the creation of our five Pro-Social Principles, a practical framework for designing and evaluating AI that supports human-to-human relationships. Partners use these principles to audit tools, guide product design, and make more intentional choices about how AI shows up in young people’s relational lives.
APRIL 2, 2025
“Why am I talking to a TV show character about the nature of life?”
"Why Am I Talking to a TV Show Character About the Nature of Life?" draws on original interviews with 27 teens ages 14–18 to examine how young people are actually engaging with AI companion apps — from venting to chatbots as a judgment-free outlet, to experimenting with AI friendships and romance.
Using the lens of "Vitamin or Vicodin," the piece explores both the genuine benefits these tools offer and the risks of dependency and social isolation, while centering what young people themselves wish adults understood about their relationship with AI.
JUNE 28, 2024
Will AI strengthen or erode human-to-human relationships?
"Will AI Strengthen or Erode Human-to-Human Relationships?" explores how the rise of AI companions and tools may impact young people's capacity for genuine human connection amid growing loneliness and mental health crises.
The piece introduces a four-quadrant framework mapping possible futures based on how youth engage with chatbots — and makes the case for intentionally designing and investing in pro-social AI that strengthens, rather than replaces, our most human ability to connect.