> In what universe is it Google's job to console me and be an empathetic listener rather than just find what I am looking for on the internet?

Looks to be an algorithmic enhanced confidence trick, to turn users searching for information into "marks", in order to extract even more information from them (that can be sold).

A certain percentage of users will be tempted to use the AI as empathetic listener, giving away loads of personal information, if their search words are twisted in inviting enough ways.

More people have to stop tolerating these type of abuses and push for this unwanted behavior to be regulated.