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by electic 3557 days ago
I am going to take a step back from the technical merits of this and say the whole thing seems sad. I don't need a need a dog collar on my neck or a badge on my shirt. Lastly, you know life is over when you spend your time talking and hanging out with a AI bot. Our society has become so isolated because people are on Facebook and Instagram instead of talking to each other.
6 comments

Disagree. Growing up on the internet gave me a sense of community and belonging that I never found in my hometown.

The internet and social media can both be incredibly connecting things (that is their purpose after all, right?).

Coming from a small town where software companies don't even exist — this x1000.
I'm not sure how to interpret the fact that you just typed this message into a textbox.
That he feels depressed and lonely?
Different people are different. I'm very much looking forward to spending a lot of time in VR interacting with AI. That's very literally my idea of what heaven is. I know I'm not the only one.
Being on Facebook and Instagram and talking to each other are not exclusive; one can talk through Facebook and Instagram.
A true AI bot could help you reason through things, teach you about a subject in a way tailored to you, could give you a vision of how you could be doing things differently, it could be a springboard for new ideas on your projects, etc. That would be my vision for the ultimate personal AI app. It's about extending your brain power and even your person. That said I doubt we're even 50 years away from something like that.
Many people already treat other humans as an enabling "bot" of one kind or another, think of the job of an executive assistant or a performer who needs the feel of an audience but has no personal relationship with any members of that audience.

An assistant, AI or otherwise, that can handle the minutiae of life isn't a bad thing if you're focusing on greater problems or concerns within your life. The danger is that many people are already obsessed with nothing but minutiae and will instead be ruled by their bot rather than vice versa. See also everyone obsessed with the Tamagotchi-like behavior of their cellphones.