You may think that chatting with an online bot and develop an emotional connection is a farfetched idea which only happens in science fiction novels or movies. The US Military however is looking at bots to provide an emotional connect as an option for deployed parents with kids to tend. There are clearly potential uses for artificial intelligence that deserve further research funding, like real-time language translation or using avatars to teach foreign languages, but using bots as substitutes for parenting is too creepy even for Frankenstein.

Such an application relies on the ability to have convincing voice-recognition, artificial intelligence, and a tailor-made application that are customized for every type of family. It gives me the impression that we may soon get to see kids raised in such a robotic lifestyle, and their inability to comprehend various emotions in the real world will stress their lives even more.

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