In those cases there is an understanding that the roomba isn’t actually sentient, people are just choosing to suspend disbelief for the sake of play. The relationships people are forming with AI are far more serious, and the people engaging in them have developed an emotional dependence on the delusion that the AI is sentient.
What I meant to imply is that if we can give persona to inanimate objects just because they happen to move, it makes sense that something that can be spoken to would cause an even larger reaction.
People put googly eyes on their roombas and apologize to them when they bump into them.
In those cases there is an understanding that the roomba isn’t actually sentient, people are just choosing to suspend disbelief for the sake of play. The relationships people are forming with AI are far more serious, and the people engaging in them have developed an emotional dependence on the delusion that the AI is sentient.
What I meant to imply is that if we can give persona to inanimate objects just because they happen to move, it makes sense that something that can be spoken to would cause an even larger reaction.