Looking at it as birthing your own companion, totally. But if you were birthing a companion you’d have to raise it, train it, educate it, feed it, clothe it, form a relationship with it, then convice (or manipulate it) to love you.

I see AI companions as even more pathetic (and a lot less gross), honestly. They want all the benefits of an actual human relationship without doing any of the work it demands. They want an echo machine that reaffirms they are valid and wanted, even though they are not. Everyone does not deserve to be loved. Everyone does not deserve to be wanted. These are things you earn and you will never be able to that with a corpo-trained techno-parrot.