Imaginary Friends Grew Up: We Panicked

We're living through an epidemic of loneliness (as many have discussed), but the solution being engineered isn't more human connection. It's simulated companionship that's both profitable and... frictionless.

If you see data or reports of people turning inward, becoming less social, going to AI for emotional comfort and counseling, or anything else that might look like convenience over friction, it may not be as simple as that. What I see is exhausted people who feel they are out of options, who have experienced so much fracture that they’re struggling ... See more

I think part of why AI-companion apps have proven so seductive so quickly is that most of our relationships already happen exclusively through the phone,” he said.

“Who cares if chatbots are sentient or not—more important is whether they are so fluent, so seductive, and so inspiring of empathy that we can’t help but start to care for them.”

even if we were not dabbling in virtual seances, the prospect of a reasonably capable conversational agent raises other questions worth considering. For example, might it p... See more