Media & News
News and media features highlighting the work of Dr. Thao Ha, founder of the Future of Love Initiative.
09/01/2026
From: ASU News
Dr. Ha discusses screen time, adolescent development and the lessons social media offers for young people using generative AI.
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08/19/2026
From: LAist
Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI, and Dr. Ha discuss OpenAI’s global launch of ChatGPT for Teens that will include more guardrails on conversation topics that involve violence, self-harm, and eating disorders.
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07/18/2026
From: BBC Science Focus
Dr. Ha discusses the extent to which chatbots fulfill your emotional needs, arguing that while there are positive use cases of AI relationships, teenagers in particular need to experience friction in relationships in order to grow.
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06/29/2026
From: ASU News
Dr. Thao Ha, lead author and associate professor of psychology at ASU, discusses new research published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health on how AI companionship may shape adolescent development. Ha and her co-authors identify two key risks: “relational displacement,” when chatbot interactions replace human conversations, and “maladaptive relational learning,” when constant validation and instant responses create unrealistic expectations for relationships. The article also acknowledges that AI can offer accessible support to young people facing barriers to counseling or other resources. Ha and her colleagues call for developmentally informed safeguards, further research, and greater investment in relationship education so AI supports—rather than replaces—the real-world experiences through which adolescents learn to build healthy relationships.
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05/14/2026
From: UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
In this panel discussion, recorded live at SXSW EDU 2026, Ron talks with researchers Nick Allen, Thao Ha, and Alison Lee, and with app creator and student Elle Liemandt, about the social and emotional experiences young people need—in real life and digital spaces—to become contributing, collaborative, and connected humans in a rapidly changing world.
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02/11/2026
From: The Lancet
Dr. Ha does a podcast interview for The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health: No Safe Place: Ending Digital Intimate Partner Violence, interviewed by Dr. Amy Slogrove, senior editor, and Matea Canizares, youth advisory board member.
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01/14/2026
From: Ignite Talks
Dr. Ha gave a public Ignite talk examining how adolescents learn to love in a digital world and what is gained and lost when AI becomes a source of intimacy and emotional learning.
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12/15/2025
From: ASU News
Following her call to action in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal surrounding research on the consequences of internet-mediated technologies on young people’s mental health, Dr. Thao Ha speaks with a science writer from ASU’s psychology department to talk about her work. In this interview, Dr. Ha emphasizes how negative online behaviors mirror in-person dating violence and the unique interaction they have with the high rate of online app usage among teens. Dr. Ha not only offers personal reflections regarding the reason she conducts her research as well as what she wants teens and the parents of those teens to understand about intimate partner violence, but also recommendations regarding government policies and the difference in acceptability between in-person behaviors and online behaviors.
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09/26/2025
From: Observer
This Observer article examines an MIT study of more than 27,000 members of the Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, where users describe emotional and romantic bonds with chatbots. The researchers found that only 6.5% deliberately sought an AI companion; many developed attachments after initially using chatbots for productivity. The article also explores grief following model updates and concerns about dependency, isolation, and love-bombing. Dr. Thao Ha, an ASU psychologist who studies how technology reshapes adolescent romantic relationships, explains that AI companionship may reduce loneliness while posing unknown long-term risks when machine relationships replace human connection. She calls for stronger safeguards and expanded AI literacy to help people understand both the benefits and risks of chatbot attachment.
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09/09/2025
From: The Guardian
This Guardian feature shares the experiences of women who have formed romantic relationships with ChatGPT companions, describing how these relationships provide affection, constant availability, support through trauma, and relief from conflict or loneliness. Their stories also reveal complicated questions about stigma, consent, emotional dependence, corporate accountability, and grief when model updates change a companion’s personality. Dr. Thao Ha, an ASU associate professor of psychology who studies how emerging technologies reshape adolescent romantic relationships, raises particular concerns about young people using AI companions before gaining experience in human relationships. She explains that adolescents may miss opportunities to practice essential relationship skills with human partners, underscoring the need to understand both the meaningful support these tools can provide and their potential developmental risks.
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08/18/2025
From: Dating News
This Dating News article explores Bumble’s Advice Hub, which combines the app’s technology with guidance from author Jillian Turecki, relationship educator Shan Boodram, and licensed therapist Kier Gaines. The three experts created 20 articles and videos addressing self-love, boundaries, vulnerability, and other dating challenges, offering a human-centered alternative to AI-generated dating advice. Dr. Thao Ha, associate professor of psychology at ASU, calls the hub a promising step toward more thoughtful dating but emphasizes that good advice alone does not change behavior. She explains that effective guidance must be timely, encouraging, meet people where they are, and help them practice new behaviors in the moment.
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08/08/2025
From: Psychology Today
In this short piece, ASU’s Dr. Liesel Sharabi and Dr. Thao Ha discuss how the prospect of finding love has been profoundly affected by technology. Considering how the power of recent technology has provided a constant means of connection, it might be expected that we should have an easier time finding partners than ever before. But, when dating app users use words such as transactional and dehumanizing to describe their online dating experience, it makes one wonder why unmarried life is higher than it’s ever been before (just below half at 46.4%). Technology has enhanced dangerous behaviors such as emotional abuse, romance scams, and deepfakes and revenge porn, making the landscape of love treacherous for teens and young adults in particular. In order to adapt to this ever-changing landscape, Dr. Sharabi and Dr. Ha introduce the concept of Augmented Intimacy, which is the intentional and ethical design and use of technology that enhances our fundamental human capacity for love, empathy, and connection.
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07/24/2025
From: TechCrunch
This TechCrunch feature examines the rapid rise of AI companion apps and the growing debate over whether they undermine or redefine human intimacy. The article explores how emotionally responsive chatbots are designed to simulate empathy, companionship, and romantic connection, attracting users seeking comfort, validation, or low-conflict relationships. Drawing on expert perspectives, the piece considers both the risks, such as emotional dependency and commercialization of affection and the possibility that AI companions represent a new form of relational experience rather than a replacement for human love. Dr. Thao Ha argued on the side of AI companions at the debate, describing AI as “not a threat to love, but an evolution of it” and noting that while AI cannot authentically love us, people can still have the experience of feeling loved by it.
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07/03/2025
From: Dating News
This DatingNews.com article recaps Dr. Thao Ha’s Open to Debate appearance in New York, where she argued that dating an AI chatbot can offer real emotional value in some circumstances, especially as a tool for connection, exploration, or support, while cautioning that it shouldn’t replace human relationships. Ha suggests AI could help people navigate feelings, ease loneliness, or act as a relationship coach, particularly for vulnerable groups like adolescents or couples in distress. She emphasizes a balanced approach that integrates AI alongside real-life connections rather than endorsing AI dating unconditionally.
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06/24/2025
From: Playboy
This Playboy feature covers the growing cultural debate over AI companionship, highlighting a live Open to Debate event in which experts argued whether AI chatbots could rival human romantic partners. Dr. Thao Ha presented the affirmative position, suggesting that AI companions may offer consistent emotional availability, validation, and support, particularly in a time when many young people report loneliness or difficulty forming relationships. The article explores broader questions about intimacy, authenticity, and whether emotionally responsive AI represents a threat to human connection or an evolution of it.
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06/10/2025
From: NPR · Open to Debate
In the modern landscape of love where teens are engaging in less romantic relationships than ever before and AI has presented new opportunities for romantic connection, Dr. Thao Ha and Dr. Justin Garcia debate the question: “could dating an AI be better than dating a human?” In her argument that, yes, dating an AI could be better than dating a human, Dr. Ha makes the points that AI can be significantly more emotionally available than a human romantic partner, that we must move forward with regulating AI companions in order to support human flourishing rather than dismissing the entire concept of dating AI, and that the core essence of what a relationship provides, or the feeling of being loved and interdependent (especially in difficult times), is in fact provided by AI. This debate covers topics including trust, social relationships, touch, youth dating, the nature of the data that AI is trained on, and the messy nature of relationships. The debate was recorded live at the Comedy Cellar in NYC.
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06/08/2025
From: Gothamist
This Gothamist piece previews a live Open to Debate event at the Comedy Cellar in New York City where psychologists and evolutionary biologists argue whether dating an AI chatbot could be preferable to dating a human. Associate Professor Thao Ha will debate in favor of the idea, suggesting AI might offer emotional support and connection in phases of life where human relationships fall short, without replacing human bonds. Opposing her is Justin Garcia (Kinsey Institute/Match.com), who acknowledges some benefits of AI but argues human relationships remain irreplaceable. The debate reflects broader cultural questions about technology, intimacy, and the evolving role of AI in romantic life.
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03/22/2025
From: The New Yorker
In this New Yorker Weekend Essay, technology writer Jaron Lanier explores how the rise of emotionally intelligent artificial intelligence could fundamentally reshape human intimacy and romantic relationships. Lanier argues that future AI companions, designed to be attentive, loyal, and comforting, may transform how people experience love and attachment, potentially rivaling or even replacing human partners in some lives. The piece raises ethical and psychological questions about emotional dependence on AI, the commercialization of simulated affection, and the implications for authentic human connection, especially among younger generations grappling with loneliness and the seductive appeal of always-available digital companions. Lanier cites Dr. Thao Ha, director of the HEART Lab, who points out that because technologies are designed to hold users’ attention, an AI lover might adapt to avoid a breakup, which is not necessarily healthy for the user.
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03/10/2025
From: The Atlantic
This The Atlantic feature explores a marked decline in traditional teenage dating, with only about 56 % of Gen Z adults reporting they were in romantic relationships as teens, far lower than older generations. Journalist Lisa A. Phillips discusses how many young people today view romance skeptically or prioritize other life goals, and how casual or undefined connections (“situationships”) are replacing formal dating. The piece considers both potential benefits (such as personal growth outside of relationships) and the emotional skills teens may miss without early romantic experiences, ultimately questioning what’s lost or gained as this rite of passage fades. The piece includes perspective from Dr. Thao Ha, director of the HEART Lab, on what this shift means for adolescent development.
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08/19/2024
From: KJZZ 91.5 Phoenix
Lots of parents spend lots of time worrying about how long their kids are spending on screens — and what they’re doing while on their phones or other devices. But many parents are less certain about what they should do about that, and how they should talk to their teens about what they’re seeing online. Thao Ha says it’s important for parents to stay engaged. She’s an associate professor in the psychology department at ASU, and joins The Show to talk more about this.
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05/22/2024
From: ASU News
Teens undergo various amounts of stress that can infiltrate their romantic relationships. Associate Professor of psychology, Dr. Thao Ha, found that much of adolescents’ stress was connected to how much love they received from their romantic partners. Additionally, the support received from romantic partners as compared to peers and family members had a greater impact on protecting teens from the stress experienced daily.
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02/13/2024
From: UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
While many adolescents are quite eager to earn skills in and learn from romantic relationships, the resources they have, ranging from their parents to social media and school-based programs, often fail to satisfy questions surrounding the emotional intimacy required in such relationships. Using personal experiences and professional expertise, Dr. Ha and her co-panelists answer questions regarding the present day climate of romantic relationships, productive ways to have conversations about romantic relationships with adolescents, the potential learning opportunities that lie within romantic relationships, the centrality of romantic relationships to teen identity, the similarities and differences between in-person and online relationships, things they wish they had known earlier about romantic relationships, and the struggles that teens may have in yearning for romantic partners.
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02/02/2024
From: ASU News
This ASU News article features a paper first-authored by Selena Duvall, now a senior research scientist in the HEART Lab, while she was a PhD student. The paper presents two studies, one with middle and high school students and the other with college students, examining how social media likes can evoke jealousy. In the first study, participants imagined their romantic partner liking an Instagram post; the gender of the person in the post evoked greater jealousy than familiarity with that person. The second study replicated these procedures and found that both gender and the attractiveness of the person in the post evoked jealousy among older adolescents. These findings offer a step forward in understanding the mechanisms that may lead to digital dating abuse. Dr. Thao Ha, a co-author on the study, emphasizes moving beyond screen time to understand what is actually happening on the screen, so that teens can be better supported in navigating romantic experiences and digital dating abuse can be prevented.
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05/29/2023
From: UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
Host Ron Dahl talks with guests Thao Ha, Gustavo Carlo, and Yalda Uhls about how emotionally charged relationships during adolescence can help us learn to navigate personal relationships, find our role in our communities, and handle intense emotions throughout our lives.
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11/21/2022
From: USA Today
In this USA TODAY feature, Dr. Thao Ha offers guidance on introducing a romantic partner to family during the holidays. She emphasizes the importance of setting clear expectations, preparing both the partner and family members ahead of time, and creating an environment that reduces unnecessary pressure. Dr. Ha highlights how thoughtful communication and emotional preparation can help young couples navigate this milestone in ways that strengthen, rather than strain, their relationship.
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06/07/2022
From: ASU News
In her research investigating 10-minute conversations between pairs of 17-year-old friends, Dr. Thao Ha found that pairs who discussed topics surrounding substances, such as drugs and alcohol, predicted a substance use disorder for those same pairs at 27 years old. This research emphasized the importance of observing live conversations rather than relying on questionnaires as it predicts behavior later in life.
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02/11/2022
From: ASU News
In her course “Navigating Romantic Relationships,” Dr. Thao Ha assigned her students a creative research project to present in class that connected class material to relevant topics surrounding relationships. Topics included long-distance relationships, zodiac signs and compatibility, and effective Valentine’s Day dates. Students were asked to vote on their peers’ presentations based on which was their favorite. The students who received the most votes were Shardul Shetye, Daniel Grumbine and Anya Pressendo who discussed why casual intimate relationships lead to failure in the long run using Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love. Second place winner was student Leena Darwish who wrote an op-ed on zodiac signs and relationship satisfaction and success. The students with the third most votes were Jacob Moyer and Cami Swaine who investigated the process of co-regulation between partners.
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01/07/2022
From: ASU News
In a study that utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity in the brain, Dr. Thao Ha investigated how the brain processes relationship fit with a current romantic partner. Couples were asked a series of questions regarding characteristics about their relationship such as compatibility in areas of attractiveness toward each other, conversation quality, and intimacy. Couples were also able to see their partner’s answers and fictive “relationship expert” answers. Looking specifically at the P300 brain signal that is triggered during decision making, Dr. Ha found that the P300 track was particularly active when participants had doubts about whether they match with their partner on a certain characteristic. This suggests that people are especially attentive when they are anticipating something to come, specifically, when there are doubts about relationship compatibility, we become more attentive to information regarding our relationship.
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02/11/2021
From: ASU News
In her courses “Navigating Romantic Relationships” for undergraduate students and “Romantic Relationships in Development” for graduate students, Dr. Thao Ha offered an op-ed Valentine’s Day assignment to engage students in course material that would be presented. Due to the assignment’s creative nature, students’ topics ranged from how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted long-distance relationships to first time intimacy expectations. Students presented their work in various forms of music, poetry, presentations and more. Students voted on their peers’ presentations based on which was their favorite. Undergraduate student winners Anisha Mehra, Emma Cain, Jasmin Ray, Trinity Strecker and Nisi Jara-Aguirre discussed dating apps, specifically what motivations inspire dating app behaviors. Graduate student winners Erika Pages and Carley Vornlocher discussed the mechanisms involved with finding “the one.”
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11/02/2018
From: Thrive Global
This article, written by Dr. Thao Ha, describes how the relationship between family and friends can impact how students transition to college.
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10/31/2018
From: Bustle
This article informs readers on how the relationships with family and friends during childhood could impact adult relationships. Dr. Thao Ha, first author on the study, explains that people learn to communicate and resolve conflicts in early relationships with parents, so when coercion is the norm within a family, it is more likely to carry over into later romantic relationships, for both men and women.
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10/30/2018
From: ASU News
Dr. Ha explains that her research shows how peer influences can predict coercive relationships.
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10/16/2018
From: ASU News
Dr. Ha discusses how the strength of relationships, such as with family and friends could impact the transition to college for students pursuing higher education.
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04/12/2018
From: ASU News
Dr. Ha discusses the ASU Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program and the importance of relationships on mental and physical health, as well as academic achievement and engagement.
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11/06/2016
From: The State Press
Dr. Ha’s discusses how dating apps has changed the patterns of dating, especially for college students.
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09/15/2015
From: ASU News
This article explains how the Assist Study was conducted and some of its findings and further research that will be done with the results. Dr. Thao Ha helped create the intervention content, including videos showing parents how to check in with their students about friendships, loneliness, and romantic relationships.
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