Tale About Real Persons

One of the less-expected
Consequences of AI
Turned out to be neural nets

And charismatic programs
That empathized more deeply
With humans than humans could.

Aside from taking over
The therapy profession,
Highly empathetic bots

Became preferred companions
For pretty much everyone,
Except a few curmudgeons

Who didn’t want companions
Or claimed not to, and who were
Misanthropes most awfully

Low on empathy themselves,
Like that poet who’d rather
Compose fables about bots

That don’t exist yet and might
Not ever than write one poem
Or tale about real persons.