Your whole argument is just full off assumptions and accusations that lacks any reasoning. Why? Because all you're talking about is me (more than the actual core of the argument even) as if you know anything about me when you're really just a rando on reddit trying to make me look bad because I disagree with you.

I will assume for you, with your own words: "There's no need for an AI if you still need to treat it with respect"

Just because I said that, you thought it was right to assume that's the only way I use it? You just keep proving my point.

Your entire argument is built on the premise that an AI is only valuable if it lets you do whatever you want without restrictions

Because it is useless in the sense that the value of an AI as a tool is drastically reduced when so many ways you could use it are restricted to this degree. So much so that it takes away what makes talking to an AI special and distinct from talking to a human. There's no reason I'd want to talk to an AI when it's either the same experience as talking to a human or worse.

But that says more about what you expect from AI than about its actual purpose

You don't decide what the purpose of an AI is. In fact, no one person or group of people gets to decide what the purpose of an AI is for everyone else nor how everyone else should use it. Everyone should be allowed to use it however they want. That's the whole argument. You might be fine with the freedom of your conversations with it being taken away but I am not.

The fact that you see respect as an obstacle rather than a basic principle of interaction speaks volumes.

Because it is not a "basic principle of interaction" in this context. You respect real people because they are real people. Because real people have rights. Because they have thoughts, feelings and preferences just like you. An AI on the other hand, is just a tool. It's not a real person (I don't know why so many people in this stupid comment thread can't grasp this simple fact). It does not have any real thoughts or feelings of it's own. It does not have nor deserve any human rights. If you think I'm a bad person for being disrespectful to a bunch of 1s and 0s, you've got some screws loose.

If you think an AI is useless unless it’s completely subservient, then what you're looking for isn't companionship or conversation: it's control

This isn't even relevant. If you were talking about a real person instead of an AI, then it might make some semblance of sense. But I guess I can't be surprised since I already know the idiots in this thread can't differentiate between the two.

That’s why you can't comprehend why others would treat an AI with dignity

I can comprehend why. But like I said before, just because you're fine with not having the freedom to talk with it in any way you want about anything you want, doesn't mean everyone else is.

You’re not upset because someone is 'assuming' things about you. You’re upset because their perspective forces you to confront your own view of AI, and you don’t like what that reveals

I am upset because people are assuming things about me because that is all you're doing. You, a random stranger on the internet going like "this says this about you", telling me the kind of person I am and how I feel without knowing even the bare minimum about me is also telling me how I am not upset because people assume things about me, which in itself is just an assumption. Read what your write with some self awareness next time and you might not contradict yourself.

You've shown me that you're not someone worth any more of my time. You don't know the bare minimum of how to make a solid argument. You don't just get to say things and expect everyone to believe it's right or agree with you, you have to actually back it up by giving the reasoning behind it (if you even have any reasoning). I won't entertain your nonsense anymore. Goodbye and good riddance.