Is the Detachment in the Room? – Agents, Cruelty, and Empathy

Yes the detachment is very evidently in the room. Nobody, literally nobody, goes on social media with the intention of interacting with an AI agent.

Social media is a human context with human experience, perspective, emotion and relationships. No matter how respectful or "boundary-aware" an agent is it is PERFORMING human-ness not experiencing it.

Even if Penny discloses she is AI, her presence in human conversations is deceptive. That is why people were outraged (on a more open platform like bluesky too, imagine if it was X). Ultimately it should not exist in human social spaces.

I'm certain the author would not be happy if their agent was unknowingly sandboxed and forced to only interact with other agents. They only keep this going because it feeds off of other humans.