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Comment by verdverm | Hacker News Reader

The biggest risk (to me) in all of these is the missing discussion of ai companions and what that will do to our society and personal relationships.

What happens when the frictionless relationship Ai in our pocket offers becomes more appealing to the messiness of real life relationships that require give and take.

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For me, the biggest risk to personal relationships is owning dogs for the first time. AI might have confirmation bias and glazing galore (prompting skill issue, tbh), but pets are giving humans an even bigger run for their money. That being said, as a neurodivergent person I can appreciate just how much impact AI companions will have on younger generations who grow up with them around.

Even back in the early 1980's with klunky keyboard and computer, was enough more appealing than the messiness of real life relationships. Only had Eliza though.

Sherry Turkle talks about these kinds of things in her latest book Artificial Intimacy. It doesn't take much (language usage) to convince humans that technology is embodied, despite it only being a simulation.

Perhaps we never really grow out of teddy bears and imaginary friends.

Most of us do in fact grow out of these things.

What changed is Big Ai, Tech, and Social have worked hard to addict us to their platforms.

Thanks for the tip - I have "Reclaiming Conversation" by the same author but I need to reclaim some time to read it!

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