> Do you also think that we should allow people to plan murders, robberies, etc. with no penalty as long as they do not follow through before they are caught?

Yes, there's nothing illegal or "wrong" with thinking. That's why every `conspiracy to X` charge necessarily requires a proof of intent. It isn't illegal to think about killing someone, if it was 99% of the world would be in jail.

Put it this way, should it be illegal for whitehat hackers to test a program, on their home computer, for bugs? There's no intent to do harm but what they;re doing could cause harm if they intended to.

Planning != merely thinking. Planning implies intent. And how could white hats harm anyone by practicing a hack on their own system? There's also a benefit to this sort of thing. Where is the benefit in planning a murder or searching for children to abuse? Poor analogy.

I can plan a trip to Italy, complete with finding best flights, hotel, etc with no intention of traveling to Italy. Where's the benefit?

The level of thinking you do should not and does not automatically cause you to have a certain level of intent.

How could "predators" harm anyone if they're talking to a computer model?

You could, but that would be a stupid thing to do, as would planning a murder that you have no intention of committing just "for fun". If you do that, well, hope no one finds your plans.

Jurors aren't mind readers. We have have a practical way to determine there was intent. Creating a plan to commit a crime shows intent. If you were doing it just because you're an ass-hat then you may pay the price for being an idiot.

No reasonable person is going to document a plan for a crime they have no intention of committing. You're living in a theoretical fantasy land.

Plenty of people fantasize, to great lengths, about killing some one who has wronged them. Under your view 99% of the population should be in jail because they've thought about killing someone.

You're obviously not reading what I write. I'm not talking about fantasizing, I'm talking about planning. not the same thing.

What would you suggest that we do with someone caught with plans to bomb a building? Let them go until they actually do it and then arrest them?