If 1 lonely person speaks to another lonely person, you now have 2 less lonely people. If 1 lonely person speaks to a chatbot, we still have 1 lonely person.

If 1 lonely person speaks to another lonely person, you now have 2 less lonely people. If 1 lonely person speaks to a chatbot, we still have 1 lonely person. Of course, people making the chatbot would argue that if everyone just used the chatbot, nobody would be lonely. I believe that relieving loneliness through personal connection is an exponential benefit (I'm not sure I have the right language there). Each connection which is added to the network described above, increases both the value, and reduces the load on any one individual. Yes, there is a maximum, nobody is going to have 200 close friends, but in social circles, there are connectors who bring multiple circles together. Rather than build chatbots to battle loneliness, there is value in building something that an help people find and build connections, and maybe that is what the AI will become, more of a concierge to connect people rather than the connection itself. Who's working on this?