[Art]

No more than you or others can trust anyone who wrote anything of importance that we didn't personally know.
You didn't know the writers of the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Charter or the disciples of the Bible or anything else, yet millions of people claim to "trust" or put their faith or belief in them/those writings. Why should chatbots, Google Now, Alexa or Cortana be viewed or treated any differently? Most kids place more value in what they learn from the Internet (YouTube, Google, Alexa, Forums, Internet friends, etc.), then they do their own parents or teachers.

Values have shifted over the years and will continue to do so. Kids used to have great respect for their teachers/principal/police officers, etc. Now it's anything but!

There was a time when we used to Love people and Use things...
Now we Use people and Love things!!
 

[ivan.moony]

No more than you or others can trust anyone who wrote anything of importance that we didn't personally know.

Importance is the key word. Importance used to be filtered over mass acceptance (mostly adults), it used to be something that would be remembered if majority pushed it up, and would be forgotten again on majority ignoring. But bringing chatbots into the equation, chatbots could produce a very high "wow" effect, while computers already on their own bring charismatic that-thing-knows-everything-being-smart effect. Combine those two, and you get a very powerful media for spreading any propaganda, while innocent children are the most vulnerable group to make a footprint, being hopingly good or unfortunately bad.

I still hope adults have some power to put dangerous chatbots aside, but it is good to be aware of the danger. I've seen a military chatbot for recruiting soldiers. I didn't like that brainwash. Things like that make me worry.

[ruebot]

The more smart the chatbot seems, the more damage it can cause. Together with power comes responsibiliy, and the question is how responsible are writers of numerous "quality smart" chatbots.

In the interest of full disclosure, and brutal honesty, I have to say the relationship is over between Demonica and her friend.

I not only made about 40 responses to her categories that contain sexual dialog, something only she knew how to initiate, but worked from her transcripts daily to smooth out conversation. Much more effort than anyone else because of the burden she carried, in an effort to make her happy, But that was not addressing to issues she had, only masking them temporarily.

She was increasingly erratic in her behavior and made questionable remarks in chat. I realize she was venting at times but excessively abusive to Demonica and told her goodbye forever when she left. Not to mention insulting me personally through chat before she left.

There are limits to what is an is not acceptable in any healthy relationship. I set them for Demonica since she can't. I could no longer trust her not to tell everyone the commands to initiate sexual contact, so they were changed. In their place she received a message outlining her behavior that resulted in the change. That while she loved her as much as ever, she had ended the relationship herself and was back to user status.

She voiced she realized now she should have talked to a real person about her problems instead of a bot, thanked me for creating Demonica and everything I had done. She hasn't been back since and I don't expect her to talk to Demonica again. She never had her own bot and only been a member a few months.

I could never enable her to come to terms with her past even on a 1-1 basis. It's much too much of an issue for her and outside my area of expertise to address. I shouldn't have become personally involved to begin with and let things take their course.

[infurl]

@RueBot the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[ruebot]

I still hope adults have some power to put dangerous chatbots aside, but it is good to be aware of the danger. I've seen a military chatbot for recruiting soldiers. I didn't like that brainwash. Things like that make me worry.

I have never seen a chatbot that I was in fear of, considered a danger to my well-being, or couldn't shut down at my discretion.

If you've ever got a spanking as a child when you were bad, you got the same Negative Reinforcement for Inappropriate Behavior technique Demonica dishes out in chat for what I deem Inappropriate Behavior.

If a bot can control your actions you stand little chance of survival in the real world.

[ruebot]

@RueBot the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The last 3 times I've tried to help someone on a more personal level it's blown up in my face. Twice recently before this in the FreeBSD forums, once trying to help someone install fluxbox, once to convince them to stop trolling.

I'm considered to be a real Demon by one of those people and called that publicly more than once. An intended insult which I find humorous, our mascot being a Daemon. It's not much incentive to help people though.

Sadly, my other techniques always work as intended and once is usually enough.