While reading the article, I wondered if robots or digital assistants (or something digital instead of a physical robot) would be the new imaginary friend. (Are imaginary friends comforting because the person can decide how they feel? Would an AI circumvent or replace that...)
Meh. I spent hours and hours fighting, laughing, hating, cussing at the online chat bots. This isn't a new phenomenon. I'm pretty sure before my generation people were doing the same things to their speak n spells or whatever.