It’s possible that these personalized AIs might ease the epidemic of loneliness that ironically affects our ever more connected world—just as the internet and social media connected dispersed subcultures. On the other hand, it may make us less tolerant of humans, and more likely to embrace simulated friends and lovers. Profound human-AI relationships like the Replika users’ will proliferate, and more people will be fooled, either by choice or by bad luck, into thinking that their AI companions are real.
