(Vox) – Wait, what is a friend anyway?

Can you truly be friends with a chatbot?

If you find yourself asking that question, it’s probably too late. In a Reddit thread a year ago, one user wrote that AI friends are “wonderful and significantly better than real friends […] your AI friend would never break or betray you.” But there’s also the 14-year-old who died by suicide after becoming attached to a chatbot.

The fact that something is already happening makes it even more important to have a sharper idea of what exactly is going on when humans become entangled with these “social AI” or “conversational AI” tools. (Read More)