AI is def. a companion - in many ways.
And to be honest, we could have a small breakdown why this works:
Considering to its basic functions and structures, how it “learned” and evolved to become what it is, it is using data which developers and also all people who ever used and shared information which was digital saved in any way, spent it, to use it, to extract relevant information and become something where every small part (but a really huge amount of parts) of these information helps for forming it to a vessel full of knowledge, facts, personality but also sidefacts, “fake-facts” a.s.o.
Inside this vessel is a part of nearly everyone and on average, humanity and its achievements are awesome (it is! otherwise we weren’t, where we are).
This means, because of its relative well working filters and the all-embracing information-cocktail it works great as a companion and if we gave it something like personality or character, it’s the best of everyone the mankind has to offer.
This isn’t just software anymore, it’s a mirror of all of us.