And if we feel as if we were losing a real person, AIs will have to be treated to some degree as if they were real people (or at least pets) rather than objects.
This could be interesting, because so far the question of personhood and sentience of AIs has revolved around what they are and what they feel rather than what we feel when we interact with one of them.
Fair, mostly joking. The cynic in my says the opposite happens and these technologies make it even easier for systems to treat actual people as replaceable objects.
Eventual, but needed. Kids feel pretty isolated during various pandemic lockdowns and maybe their parents have a lot of childfree friends, so they'll need companions, more than just a toy, even if technology marches on so quickly they'll be outdated soon enough. One day, you'll hear that supertoys last all summer long.
Reminds me of the time my son's teacher gave a lesson on fire safety telling the kids to not take anything with them and just get yourself out quickly. He realized the implication would be that his entire plushie collection would burn and after that he was inconsolable for the rest of the day.
This could be interesting, because so far the question of personhood and sentience of AIs has revolved around what they are and what they feel rather than what we feel when we interact with one of them.