The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Utilizing artificial intelligence to enhance social connections – the alleviating effect of emotionally intelligent chatbots on loneliness
Abstract
We, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology , have retracted the following articles, which were published as part of a planned Special Issue titled "AI empowered Assistive Technology" and edited by Uzair Aslam Bhatti: Liu, Y., & Long, T. (2025). How does social media shape the duration of formal care for disabled elderly? Moderating effects based on digital competence and psychological expectancy. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology , 20 (7), 2146-2159. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2025.2525539Lu, X., & Guo, W. (2025). Utilizing artificial intelligence to enhance social connections - the alleviating effect of emotionally intelligent chatbots on loneliness. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology , 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2025.2540494Xuanfeng, D. (2025). Gesture recognition and response system for special education using computer vision and human-computer interaction technology. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology , 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2025.2527226Ren, H., Lv, J., Ren, L., & Guo, R. (2025). Optimizing the spatial allocation of pension resources in downtown Shanghai: a dynamically updated genetic algorithm approach. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology , 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2025.2536173Kadiyala, B., Nippatla, R. P., Boyapati, S., Vasamsetty, C., Alavilli, S. K., & M, T. (2025). Prevention and health care interventio…
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Research on Replika suggests reductions in loneliness and social anxiety, improvements in well-being, self-confidence, relationship satisfaction, and in some cases support in moments of suicidal ideation.
“Research focusing on Replika, for example, suggests reductions in loneliness and social anxiety (Lu & Guo, 2025;De Freitas et al., 2025;Skjuve et al., 2021), improvements in well-being, self-confidence, relationship satisfaction (Ta et al., 2020;Guingrich & Graziano, 2024;Mariott & Pitardi, 2024), and in some cases support in moments of suicidal ideation (Maples et al., 2024).”
From Artificial intelligence and unconditional love: the rise of generative AI as an alternative form of mental health support (2026) · cites this paper as Lu & Guo, 2025
A growing number of studies document the mental health benefits of companion AI systems, particularly regarding the positive effects of companionship and self-disclosure.
“However, a growing number of studies document the mental health benefits of companion AI systems, particularly regarding the positive effects of companionship and selfdisclosure.”
From Artificial intelligence and unconditional love: the rise of generative AI as an alternative form of mental health support (2026) · cites this paper as Lu & Guo, 2025
Citations
Cites
1 retracted
Wang, J., & Fan, W. (2025) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-025-04787-y · Cited by 322
RetractedExploring relationship development with social chatbots: A mixed-method study of replika
Pentina, I., Hancock, T., & Xie, T. (2023) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2022.107600 · Cited by 522
Conversational Agents: Goals, Technologies, Vision and Challenges
Allouch, M., Azaria, A., & Azoulay, R. (2021) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s21248448 · Cited by 168
Liu, H., Zhang, M., Yang, Q., & Yu, B. (2020) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-019-01726-6 · Cited by 150
Smartphone App to Address Loneliness Among College Students: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Hook, C. J., Pfeifer, J. H., FitzGerald, C., Davis, B., Delucchi, K. L., Haritatos, J., & Ramo, D. E. (2020) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/21496 · Cited by 80
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Miller, V., Hill, M. J., & Moreira, T. (2026) · Communication and Change · doi:10.1007/s44382-026-00036-1 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Lu, X., & Guo, W.
- Venue
- Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-08-01
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1748-3107
- 1748-3115
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 5
- Language
- en
- Status
- Retracted
- Update notices
- retraction (2026-02-04)
- Funders
- National Social Science Found of China (23AGL040)
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
