On the broader topic of AI companion chatbots: a bad idea! There are so many opportunities in life to develop real relationships, with real people.
I think I disagree with the sentiment, but I definitely disagree with the conviction.
I think it's possible that chatbots will help people prepare and refine their relationship skills, such that "real" relationships are more likely and more successful. Think of chatbots as simulations, which are used in everything from medical to military to HR contexts. Maybe that's not all bad?
I'm 100% sure chatbots will be used in ways I'd characterize as "not healthy", but I'm not at all sure that's any of my business, or that those to-me negative uses will outweigh more positive usages.
By practicing with ai porn bots? Created by the advertising (manipulation) tech giants of the future? How skewed and messed up would your norms be after a while?
"Trash in, trash out" as they say.
The bots could be created with the intention of making human relationships better, not worse. It could call out harmful behavior or point people into better directions, and similar ways.
"No Dave, doing X to your partner might not be appreciated, talk with them about it or may I suggest these alternatives?"
(1) Are those the kind of bots being created?
(2) Are those the kinds of bots that will be commercially successful?
2: ...Nope.
Well... shit.
Chatbots miss the point entirely and will only make the loneliness worse.
People who are intolerant of "bad" relationships aren't ready for relationships. Seeing the worst of each other, keeping things honest, and working through it together is the relationship. Doing that with a bot is cheating yourself hard out of life's most important moments.
Forgetting about the technology for a moment, it's already a bad idea to be overexperienced. People get jaded and turn into manipulators. The other problem with experience is that preferences change. The dating market is already bad enough and full of crazy expectations fueled by scammers and the corporate overlords.
Trying to do better and avoid pain just makes you less compatible and is very naive. Training your preferences on bots ensures you will stay alone and addicted.
It's like having an imaginary girlfriend in your head. If it makes that person happy then why do other people feel bad for the guy? Because although that guy may look happy, and maybe is happy right now, most people don't really believe that's a recipe for happiness in the long term. People see somebody on a path to loneliness and pity them for it.
Similar to why social media, despite "everyone being on there and available to everyone," doesn't seem to mitigate loneliness.
I remember the first time I played Echo VR. I'm not sure it was because I wasn't used to VR, because of the duration I played the first time or what, but the first minutes after removing the VR headset, I had some sort of disassociation with my arms in real-life.
That must have been back in 2017/2018 sometime. Add in current generation of voice recognition and generation, better performance for both headsets and the games themselves, LLM to help the "partner" to feel more alive regarding behavior and I think you could get pretty close to "fooling" someone if they use it enough.
I'd guess something like that would make loneliness worse in the world though, rather than better.
But to the extent (some) people substitute chatbots for real relationships because chatbots are infinitely forgiving and don't promote maturation, I think the harm could be a group of perpetual children who don't have the real-world support structure to deal with real-world issues like needing long term medical care.
If it does lead to happy, healthy people—maybe it isn't bad. However, I don't have any expectation that it would result in happy or healthy people, and a reasonably strong belief that it would result in the opposite.
OTOH, it might prove useful in giving advice on how to help others.
In our current world of seeming abundance, it's hard (for me) to wrap my mind around the fact that material considerations are actually important. This is why some people are concerned about shifts in demographics.
One example is that societies can reach a point where there are not enough people of working age to provide the services and goods for the "nonworkers" (retired + infirm + students + children)
Anything that has the potential to cause a step-decrease in birthrate has the potential to cause a big economic/political disturbance, and a 'distraction' from traditional human relationships definitely has that potential, as people only have so many years where they can reproduce.
Even therapists consider it valuable to therapy that you don’t get to talk to your therapist 24/7. The ability to sit with your issues independently is important— just as important is the ability to not freak out when a friend doesn’t text you back asap.
To quote the Dude, "That's like, your opinion man". You're painting with a very broad brush based on your experiences and are expecting everyone else to be the same thing as you. This shows a lack of critical thinking on your part.