New research shows the top reason people are using generative AI is for therapy and companionship.
How and Why People Use Gen AI | The Learning and Development Initiative
Individual non-professionals maybe, but overall there must be a lot of generations done for marketing and entertainment
For sure, I find it very useful for those purposes. But I think it says something significant so many people are using it for companionship.
I used to help out in an old people's home (how do you call those) and there was this lady who had a stuffed animal (maybe a female lion but maybe a normal cat, idk) and she was obviously very demented because she seemed to believe it was alive and took it everywhere but it also showed me how valuable it can be to feel companionship with something. Loneliness can be a very painful experience I guess, especially if you don't have the 'tools' to deal with it. Not sure though if it is mainly a good thing or a bad thing these people now have an ai as companion.
I don't know about companionship but it beats the shit out of leafing through unnecessarily verbose documentation (looking at you, AWS)