Aut teen stepdaughter, using AI chatbots for relationships.

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Im brand new to here and also a year in to caring for our 15 year old stepdaughter.

But I need the wisdom of you all to see if this is a healthy thing.

For the last 8 months she has been engaging in psuedo boyfriend/girlfriend relationships with A.I. characters mostly emulated from niche animation/games and pop culture movies such as :
"Murder drones" (uzi or n)
"the amazing digital circus" (pomni)
"ramshackle" (stone)
"scream" (Billy loomis)
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley (andy)

She is using character ai with the filter settings set to non explicit/non sexual content.

Is this something to be encouraged since its a tool to explore relationships without the real life fallout, or can this lead to more harmful behaviour since these are not real people.

These bots are easily manufactured/manipulated to please the user via editing in the software.

We share this concern.

I do not feel qualified to answer your question (my kiddos aren't very 'plugged in' to technology; we have a lot of daily interaction with each other, and there are a ton of us in the same house), but I am incredibly interested in reading other parents' thoughts here.

This is a new development in human history. Short answer, we don't know.

It is fascinating, no? I feel sometimes I am living in a science-fiction novel.

Honestly, I don't like all this change, AI, chatbots, driverless cars, Alexa, the lot. It is a little bit scary and reminds me of Terminator.

My own opinion on developing relationships with chatbots? I think the only harm could come from the humans that programmed it. Eventually, they want to monetize the chatbot, so they will slip in subtle advertisements to buy a certain perfume, or clothes, and so on. Alternatively, they may start charging a monthly fee. Ain't nothing free in this world.

It is possible that the program itself could achieve a certain malignancy...now that possibility can't be known to us. But we are not privy to the code, are we? We do not know how it works or why it works other than in a sketchy manner.

In olden times, folk developed relationships with imaginary friends, spirits, demons, angels and earth spirits. So, it is something our ancestors might understand, in a way.

I think this should this be studied, the pros and cons of this , maybe its going to be the breakthrough that all autism/apergers may need to learn hidden social cues/cultivate wholesome relationships via practice and repetition, but im wary that its just another coping mechanism and they will fall in love with the imaginary rather than negotiate the rollercoaster of real life relationships as this app doesnt get physical its just fake conjecture that leads infinitely to keep the user engaged.