Would a Para-social relationship with an AI construct be fulfilling or detrimental?

[Ephermerallhama]

Back again after a pretty long hiatus! And just in time to be absolutely intrigued by the AI situation that's currently ongoing with much heated debates about ethics, etc.

So, given a sufficiently intelligent AI that's actually trained on human emotion and intellect; would a relationship like that be feasible or even beneficial? Do consider all aspects when answering such as the inability for a physical interaction (unless the Synthetic Humans become a thing but that's for the far future 😬), the lack of true or perceived depth in the interactions, or perhaps even the fact that the AI might provide a false sense of approval filled with bias instead of giving a genuine take on a particular scenario.

Ofcourse! It would be beneficial with absolutely no consequences.

Yes! But not without consequences worth weighing before diving in.

Absolutely detrimental! Such a thing would be a mistake.

Perhaps the answer isn't as black-white and requires more thought (and caution)

[inhua]

there's always going to consequences for every action. these consequences can be good or bad and not necessarily affect the people involved

one such benefit would be preventing a lot of suicides. one drawback would human reproduction will never be the same again if technology continues to advance

I can definitely see the government intervention being done to prevent this from happening but with no other offers available, this will be inevitable

[Ephermerallhama]

Thanks for the reply! I agree there's always going to be consequences good and bad. Also you're absolutely right about social support that could benefit a lot of people going through a lot and preventing suicides. The pursuit of technology will always keep going and perhaps it might affect human population in the future but I do think the Government would leave it on us perhaps (unless strictly Authoritarian Governmens become rather common).

[Anonymous]

You lose the physical touch aspect to it, nothing replaces human skin to skin touch.

The AI chatbot is better than nothing though.

[provokeesmokee]

Parasocial interactions are terrible on their own, with human subjects.

Parasocial bonding with a language model (that's what those are, they're not true AI, we're not there yet) is ten times as stupid.

Delusion isn't something to encourage or support.

[AngryCarl2]

In the movie Castaway Tom Hanks has a relationship with a volleyball. Arguably this is the only thing that keeps him sane. It's a poor substitute for human companionship, but a substitute nonetheless.

[Ephermerallhama]

That's a good example, at dire times human companionship might not be easy to seek so I guess in a way the right kind of support even (if might be poor substitute) is better than nothing :).

[Dargil]

The emergence of social androids will pretty much destroy the social fabric and family structure.