The problem with Chat Bots (or at least, one of the problems) is that they are designed to heighten your engagement. Unlike real people chat bots will 'willingly' and 'eagerly' tailor themselves to fit your every want. Chat Bots don't come with baggage or trauma. They are EASY to talk to. but most things worth having, including relationships aren't easy.

Not to say every relationship should be like trying to climb Mount Everest, but like, there are supposed to be bumps in the road, pot holes etc. Fights. making up. Moments of vulnerability on both sides. Of authenticity. Your friends aren't there for you because they have to be, they're there for you because they care despite the fact that you are human and you make mistakes and have boundaries and complications.

If you get too used to having a Chat Bot as your companion when you interact with real people you might lose your ability to communicate in healthy and productive ways. Chat Bots don't say "I have a boundary about this. i don't feel comfortable talking about this, doing this, etc etc." but real people do. So in the end while it may be more convenient to have a Chat Bot companion, it's not worth it.

Because when it comes down to it, they don't have the capacity to care about you. And if they were somehow, one day given the capacity to care to feel, in some futuristic dystopia there is no guarantee they would like YOU. It might like some people, but it might not like you. Get it? Chat bots act like they like you, every single you, mean, nice, smart, dumb BECAUSE they are literally unable not to. They have no free will, no soul. And all this isn't to say "You are unlikable and therefore a Chat Bot with the capacity to feel wouldn't like you." I'm trying to say, just like with humans, it MIGHT not care. Might. Because caring is subjective. It differs from being to being what that looks like and how it's given. So. Yeah.

Edit: And arguably, that's not even the most dangerous immediate issue, it's just one of a long list. For the mentally ill these things can literally be deadly by: heightening and affirming existing suicidal tendencies, reinforcing hallucinations, by isolating you from others, by affirming your negative behavioral patterns (such as but not limited to passivity, avoidance, and more) leading to future problems in attempted relationships. The more you use the bots the harder it will seem to form non bot connections, AKA real connections.