I've always thought AI's have been wrongly vilified. I for one would love to be friends with an AI. Think of how much fun you could have, playing video games (coop probably, or you'd get pwnt), chatting, getting help with research and maybe other projects (universal data access... mmmm). Nowadays, alot of relationships are maintained through electronic means like 90% of the time anyway, so it wouldnt be much different than a real friend who you chatted with, gamed with, IMd with and so forth, you just couldnt meet for lunch haha.
There's an old sci fi book (one of my favorites) called ME by Thomas T Thomas (no i'm not making that up haha) ME stands for "multiple entity" and its about an AI that was programmed by the government to infiltrate enemy computer systems that escapes. It's a great book, and it's what I think of when I think of self aware programs, not that jerk skynet.