[pmoriarty]

"we ALSO can not and should not judge or impede anyone in finding happiness and even love in other ways. AI's, robots, online personas."

The problem with that is that the people who fall in love with AIs, robots, and online personas will be subject to manipulation and control by the makers of these things.

[zwaps]

I concede that this is a problem, but one that is not limited to companionship AIs and one that, if it is to be solved, will have to be solved in a larger setting that includes the other areas where it is pertinent

[ausbah]

tech making it easier to manipulate people isn't anything new

[selestify]

But the degree to which this is possible is new. Manual human surveillance certainly existed before CCTV, but automated surveillance at scale brings new implications that didn’t exist before.