I think what most of these commentators miss is the experience of the author as someone who works with victims of male violence. No doubt there are plenty of people who use these apps as a bit of harmless fantasy. However there is an epidemic of loneliness and I absolutely agree with the author that these apps are more likely to make that worse than better. They certainly won’t “teach social skills”, since social skills are all about understanding the feelings and needs other people, while these AI chatbots are empty ciphers there to please the customer. The fact that there is no yet evidence of harm is not an argument against raising these concerns. Many harms can be identified as a risk before the studies can be done to prove it. We can all see the risk of AI displacing jobs - we don’t need a study to prove it. Any technology that reinforces sexual objectification is potentially problematic and the risk is not gender symmetrical, whether or not women are also using these apps.