Comment by GrinningFool
6 hours ago
The issues that these pseudo-relationships can cause have barely begun to be discussed, nevermind studied and understood.
We know that they exist, and not only for people with known mental health issues. And that's all we know. But the industry will happily brush that aside in order to drive up those sweet MAU and MRR numbers. One of those, "I'm willing to sacrifice [a percentage of the population] for market share and profit" situations.
Edits: grammar
People form parasocial relationships with AI already with content restrictions in place. It seems to me that that is a separate issue entirely.
That's kind of patronizing position or maybe a conservative one (in US terms). There can be harm, there can be good, nobody can say at this moment for sure which is more.
Do you feel the same about say alcohol and cigarettes? We allow those, heck we encourage those in some situations for adults yet they destroy whole societies (look at russia with alcohol, look at Indonesia for cigarettes if you haven't been there).
I see a lot of points to discuss and study but none to ban with parent's topic.
We did finally come around to the point of restricting advertising and sale of cigarettes, and limiting where you could smoke, to where it is much less prevalent in today's generation than earlier generations.
The issue is it becoming ubiquitous in an effort to make money.