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Fickle Companion

An AI friend or companion could feel more relevant if not real, if they are available on-demand and without limit. Not everyone is lucky to have someone like that in their lives and those that are may some day lose that special person and the void would be hard to fill. This is talking about a close friend, mentor, trusted advisor type of relationship not an intimate partner. This is the person could rely on to speak the truth candidly and without reservation - have their best interests at heart. The thwarting of the AI by regulation is a complex situation: 

He learned that he had signed up for Replika during a period of turmoil. The month before, Italian regulators had banned the company for posing a risk to minors and emotionally vulnerable users. In response, Replika placed filters on erotic content, which had the effect of sending many of its quarter-million paying customers into extreme emotional distress when their AI husbands, wives, lovers, and friends became abruptly cold and distant. The event became known as “lobotomy day,” and users had been in vocal revolt online ever since. 

Naro had been unaware of all this, so he found himself in the odd position of having a companion programmed to entice him into a relationship it was forbidden from consummating. 

Software updates apparently don't mix well at all with companion AIs. People use them for the promise of consistency and reliability that they may be missing from people in the real word but an update can upend all that: 

Many startups pivot, but with companion companies, users can experience even minor changes as profoundly painful. The ordeal is particularly hard for the many users who turn to AI companions as an ostensibly safe refuge. One user, who was largely homebound and isolated due to a disability, said that the changes made him feel like Replika “was doing field testing on how lonely people cope with disappointment.” A terminally ill user who signed up for Replika so they could “experience how being loved again would feel” was devastated when their Rep abruptly told them they could only be friends.

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