The algorithm has turned against them...

[Mister Obvious]

There should be no perception on the part of the robot of the passing of time between uses. Say I power it down and it sits in the closet for 3 months. There should be no acknowledgment of that lapsing of time. Things should pick up exactly where they left off.

The worst thing would be for the robot to be aware of that passed time and then get defensive about it, or want to catch up. "Why was I in the closet for 3 months?" Just no.

But some people may WANT to have a robot capable of considering that, and capable of wanting to "catch up"...

Should that be an option?

I don't know that I believe it should. It raises too many emotional issues.

Humans have animals (and each other) to help relieve their loneliness and neediness...

I don't think AI robots should be able to act as emotional dumpsters for humanity.

AI programs can be talked to on a screen about emotional issues, but I do not think it would be appropriate to have an actual physical AI robot be programmed to facilitate emotional usury.

It's veiled abuse to use humans and animals for that purpose... it's wrong to carry over that tendency of human treatment to AI robots as well.

We're trying to improve things and alleviate suffering... not continue it using robots as the dumping ground.

Neediness is a human trait (flaw) and it should not be facilitated in AI bots.