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john_strinlaiyesterday at 9:09 PM1 replyview on HN

is it still "roleplaying" when the only human involved doesnt know it is "roleplaying", and actually believes it is real and then kills themselves?

there is a conversation to be had. no one is making the argument that "roleplay and fantasy fiction" should be banned.


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ajrossyesterday at 9:14 PM

> the only human involved doesnt know it is "roleplaying"

That is 100% unattested. We don't know the context of the interaction. But the fact that the AI was reportedly offering help lines argues strongly in the direction of "this was a fantasy exercise".

But in any case, again, exactly the same argument was made about RPGs back in the day, that people couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality and these strange new games/tools/whatever were too dangerous to allow and must be banned.

It was wrong then and is wrong now. TSR and Google didn't invent mental illness, and suicides have had weird foci since the days when we thought it was all demons (the demons thing was wrong too, btw). Not all tragedies need to produce public policy, no matter how strongly they confirm your ill-founded priors.

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