The use of uncensored models and ERP has continued to grow in popularity. I'd like to have an honest discussion about what that means for humans moving forward. Is it good? Bad? Both?

I'm sure most of us have heard of CarynAI. The creator, Caryn Marjorie, said she wanted to cure loneliness for her fan base. I read that as she wanted to monetize the loneliness of her fan base. That being said, are LLMs a tool for loneliness or do they ultimately make users feel worse?

This article by Psychology Today talks about the rise of the loneliness economy. Caryn Marjorie is far from alone in her attempt to capitalize on loneliness as the article discusses the RentAFriend app where you can pay someone $40/hr to have dinner with you. So that begs the question, why is it okay to pay for a human friend or for someone's attention on OnlyFans but all of a sudden becomes "weird" when AI is involved? Is there a risk of the user's view of reality being altered?

Last, if companies continue to prey on consumer loneliness, isn't it important to keep free and open source solutions available?