NEW YORK -- An array of popular apps are offering AI companions to millions of predominantly female users who are spinning up AI girlfriends, AI husbands, AI therapists -- even AI parents -- despite long-standing warnings from researchers about the potential emotional toll of interacting with humanlike chatbots, reported The Washington Post on Friday.

"While artificial intelligence companies struggle to convince the public that chatbots are essential business tools, a growing audience is spending hours building personal relationships with AI," noted the report.

In September, the average user on the companion app Character.ai spent 93 minutes a day talking to one of its user-generated chatbots, often based on popular characters from anime and gaming, according to global data on iOS and Android devices from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. That's 18 minutes longer than the average user spent on TikTok. And it's nearly eight times longer than the average user spent on ChatGPT, which is designed to help "get answers, find inspiration and be more productive."

"Some Silicon Valley investors and executives are finding the flood of dedicated users -- who watch adds or pay for monthly subscription fees -- hard to resist," said the report.

While Big Tech companies have mostly steered clear of AI companions, which tend to draw users interested in sexually explicit interactions, app stores are now filled with companion apps from lesser-known companies, it added.