Actually, I bet they'd be GREAT conversational partners for young autistic children.
I think I'd have preferred a human being (at least, a familiar one). But I can see a robot conversational partner or playmate being a less threatening way to learn, say, conversational give and take...
...and, because it doesn't come with actual human emotions and actual human social behavior, it would probably be LESS likely to "misunderstand" something, or be malicious because it got hurt feelings, or...
Could it teach the finer points of social interaction?? Say, teach cocktail party conversation to a college student, or teach banter to an Aspie teen, or help a middle schooler deal with a concept like "frenemies??"
No. I don't think it could teach anything that a reasonably intelligent NT would struggle with. Because, in the end, no matter how well-programmed it is, it still IS NOT human (nor Rachel Rosen, either-- no matter how deep into the Uncanny Valley we've gotten, we haven't come out the other side yet).
But it could make learning some basic skills less threatening for an autistic child.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"