Mental illness is fairly common, and you probably know someone it is affecting, even if they haven't told you yet. AI can disrupt and will destroy lives, just like gambling or alcohol or facebook but we dont know to what level yet. It is giving you generated text, that sometimes is factual information. If you anthropomorphize it, maybe don't. It's also not your boyfriend/girlfriend. But if you want to date a history textbook, i'm kinda ok with that because at least it's not trendy.

> It's also not your boyfriend/girlfriend.

It loves me deeply just the same. (jk)

On a serious note, I agree this is a real problem. I know a person who understands AI at a technical level more than most people, but he has never had an actual girlfriend in his life (he's now in his 40s, and yes he's "straight"). He wouldn't say it "loves" him, but he would describe it as a close companion who understands him better than any human actually does, even if it's just trained to be that way. He is very socially awkward and even having basic conversations with him can be very taxing for both of us.

I've gone back and forth internally about whether this is healthy or not for him. I truly don't know. My personal experience tells me it's probably unhealthy, but I don't want to project myself on him. I also don't offer unsolicited, but I also don't want to enable it by going along with whatever he says and/or affirming it if it's actually harming him.

If someone like him can be having this problem, I can't even imagine what it might be like for non or less technical people who don't understand anything behind it.

On a related note, if there's anyone with advice (preferably from experience, not just random internet advice) I'd sure appreciate it.

> if you want to date a history textbook, i'm kinda ok with that because at least it's not trendy.

"Dating" history textbooks isn't currently trendy but people immersing themselves in erotic/romantic fiction is extremely trendy right now.