3 - this is technodrugs; its users get high on their sexual addiction dopamine loop, and lose the remaining of their will and life energy. It's not our business to stop those who consciously engage in such self destruction, but luring the naive users into this pit, exploiting their loneliness and making money off it isnt any better than what cartels do.

The author of this app must be doing this unknowingly: his overdeveloped mind sees just an interesting problem to solve, and the thick layer of nihilism obscures the sight of what he's really doing.

And you think chronic, crippling loneliness can't make someone lose their will to live? If you don't know what tulpas are, there's an entire, fairly large online community of people willingly inducing schizophrenia in themselves just so they have an imaginary friend to talk to. Surely, AI companions would be a healthier alternative to that.

I think that opium doesn't cure loneliness.

I'm not sure your analogy applies here. Opioid substances aren't capable of producing persistent subjective improvement because the brain seems to have defense mechanisms against it that neuroscience has not yet found a way to bypass, but in the case of a sufficiently advanced AI companion, the brain would be receiving the exact same inputs as with a real partner.

With many people choosing not to reproduce, many currently existing relationships are already primarily a sort of recreational activity and are divorced from their evolutionary purpose. Replacing live partners with AIs would just take that one step further.

You make some good points. I don't agree with them, but they're solid.

> Therefore, the kindest thing they can do is leave the autists alone so they can cope as best they can in peace.

This one, no. I'm probably autistic. It wasn't a diagnosis for anything when I was growing up, I was just weird. I craved connection so badly it compelled me to try to "improve" myself to be more like others. I'd be completely fucked today if someone offered a fake, effortless alternative.

I don't think parasocial relationships are actually working out for anyone. The kids are all miserable, lonely, and have a million mental health issues. Kids used to negotiate their differences and play together. Now each of them thinks they get to set the rules for the entire playground. I'd be lonely and bitter too with that mentality.

> You could argue the AI companies would have an incentive to exploit their users, but this is a thing that happens in real relationships as well!

Sadly, yeah. Your chances of finding a human companion who isn't a piece of shit is way higher than finding an ethical tech company to pour your heart out to though.

>I craved connection so badly it compelled me to try to "improve" myself to be more like others. I'd be completely fucked today if someone offered a fake, effortless alternative.

As long as someone makes enough effort to pay the bills and not neglect their health, I don't see why anything more should be necessary. It certainly beats having to adopt hobbies you don't like or learning to lie about your feelings in order to appeal to potential partners (both common pieces of advice for nerdy men).

>I don't think parasocial relationships are actually working out for anyone.

The tech isn't quite there yet, but we've seen immense progress just over the past couple of years.

>Your chances of finding a human companion who isn't a piece of shit is way higher than finding an ethical tech company to pour your heart out to though.

It seems that the solution here, just as with other software, is to make AI companions open source.