[ninjha01]

I personally don't, and I think it's because pets make demands of you. Walking a dog, making sure your cat is up to date on vaccines, feeding your fish, etc. These all require some level of sacrifice, which strikes me as inherently un-pathetic.

Which points the way to a new Turing test. Something like: "Can an AI credibly make a demand of the user?"

[js8]

Right. But if AI girlfriend doesn't make demands to you, then it's just a boring novelty, isn't it? Why engage with something like that, it's like cheating in a computer game. How it can make you happy?

I feel the problem you paint will solve itself. It doesn't seem to me it will have worse outcomes than computer gaming.