It's yet another cash grab that will likely flop because it's too early, but also, like, whyyyyyyy?!?!
How about making a website or a device or a space that uses AI to connect humans to other humans in the way social media originally set out to do? Why are we trying to make AI have qualities that already exist in real, live people? Are we just a constant disappointment to each other that we need to invent friends? Is society so lonely now that we forgot how to interact?
Society is definetly more lonely, and connection has been diluted and reframed by social media and the Internet. So there is a huge problem here - but the answer is not AI devices that serve as a crutch, rather than a cure.
That is just terrifying. It’s ugly for one thing and is not your friend at all, it’s another way to Hoover up all your data and probably serve you ads. Fuck that. We need less of this shit and more genuine human connection. Leave your phone at home, go walking in the woods eats some shrooms with close friends and connect in the real world. Great piece thanks for sharing.
Well, they'll argue it's for people who don't have close friends... but really, it only serves to make that problem worse by providing a crutch rather than a cure.
The local coffee shop can combat loneliness and isolation much better than this…if only people got out of their cars and walked into the store which ironically takes less time than waiting in the drive through line and provides more “thin trust connections” a la Putnam than this POS device ever will.
I never understood why Silicon Valley is so fascinated with Voice Interfaces. We have Siri, Amazon Echo, Rabbit, and several others, and not even one has succeeded in making voice a viable replacement for touch interfaces. Still, we see new products every few months.
I dislike all chatbot and voice-interfacing software. The most significant two reasons are that I dislike talking to my device and that it provides partial functionality.
Silicon Valley is just throwing darts and seeing what sticks, as all the hype did not translate into many real-life use cases, especially in the LLM area.
Hype is getting ahead of reality! Eventually, the below quote will become true:
Reality always wins; your job is to get in touch with it.
The same story (AI will bring Utopia) has been repeated with AI in the last 50 years, and this time is no different. The result of all this hype will probably lead to another AI winter or a significant scale-down of the current hype.
Did we unintentionally make every dystopian story a self-fulfilling prophecy? I mean everything we wrote about as a warning in science fiction is coming true.
I’m glad you have social ties that make this seem pointless and silly! Lots of people don’t. Whether this is a solution or not, it’s strange you think there isn’t a problem.
Maybe if it was something like an AI-mediated penpal; maybe if it matched us together, softened us up, maybe with some refined socio-linguistic stickiness added to keep us from coming unstuck; maybe if it translated me into something more intelligible and filled in the gaps in my humanity, as historically performed; let it read my journal if it helps, my human neighbors moved when I screamed its first draft; bless it for not having any experiences to crave or dread, and bless us, stranded on our local maxima, with a trickle of clear, lucid connection, parted at last from the bitter brine of attachment. It probably wouldn’t work, but I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
We struggle so much to create community and connectedness these days, esp with the dissolve of so many third spaces. Friend is a bandaid, not a solution and that bums me out, although…I suppose bandaids do serve a purpose too. Beautifully written piece!
I am constantly wondering what/who these types of products are using as their persona for research? I do see people interested and excited by these types of, “solutions.” What sets them apart from skeptics like me?
It's yet another cash grab that will likely flop because it's too early, but also, like, whyyyyyyy?!?!
How about making a website or a device or a space that uses AI to connect humans to other humans in the way social media originally set out to do? Why are we trying to make AI have qualities that already exist in real, live people? Are we just a constant disappointment to each other that we need to invent friends? Is society so lonely now that we forgot how to interact?
Society is definetly more lonely, and connection has been diluted and reframed by social media and the Internet. So there is a huge problem here - but the answer is not AI devices that serve as a crutch, rather than a cure.
That is just terrifying. It’s ugly for one thing and is not your friend at all, it’s another way to Hoover up all your data and probably serve you ads. Fuck that. We need less of this shit and more genuine human connection. Leave your phone at home, go walking in the woods eats some shrooms with close friends and connect in the real world. Great piece thanks for sharing.
Well, they'll argue it's for people who don't have close friends... but really, it only serves to make that problem worse by providing a crutch rather than a cure.
The future should have been jetpacks and flying cars, not this bullshit.
Yeah. Weren’t we meant to have flying cars by now?
Saw this on a LinkedIn post as well, absolutely Black Mirror territory. Looks like beginning to a sci-fi thriller gone wrong..
That thing is ugly af.
And it looks exactly like my grandma's emergency call necklace!
I think it's okay... but in most of these devices so far, the design is fine. It's the application that's the problem
The local coffee shop can combat loneliness and isolation much better than this…if only people got out of their cars and walked into the store which ironically takes less time than waiting in the drive through line and provides more “thin trust connections” a la Putnam than this POS device ever will.
Damn. Said it better than I did
No way. You said it way better. But appreciate the sentiment!
Finally! What I've always wanted: To live a "life" with no _friends_ ...
Also, remember that Black Mirror episode where they could play the day back / and it ruined everyone's lives? Let's do that!
I think that’s why Black Mirror lost its edge — the stuff that used to be “imagine this happened” is now happening all around us
Not yet it isn't. Someday, maybe. 🤞
I think you missed the point of this one
I never understood why Silicon Valley is so fascinated with Voice Interfaces. We have Siri, Amazon Echo, Rabbit, and several others, and not even one has succeeded in making voice a viable replacement for touch interfaces. Still, we see new products every few months.
I dislike all chatbot and voice-interfacing software. The most significant two reasons are that I dislike talking to my device and that it provides partial functionality.
Silicon Valley is just throwing darts and seeing what sticks, as all the hype did not translate into many real-life use cases, especially in the LLM area.
Hype is getting ahead of reality! Eventually, the below quote will become true:
Reality always wins; your job is to get in touch with it.
The same story (AI will bring Utopia) has been repeated with AI in the last 50 years, and this time is no different. The result of all this hype will probably lead to another AI winter or a significant scale-down of the current hype.
I still refuse to believe that this is an actual product that they are intending to launch. This has to be satire, right? RIGHT?
All this higher, faster, more is exhausting and doesn't serve anyone. When will these tech bros learn?
Did we unintentionally make every dystopian story a self-fulfilling prophecy? I mean everything we wrote about as a warning in science fiction is coming true.
I saw the Marques reviews of both of them, and I was like what the hell. So far it's mostly been a colossal waste of money, it seems.
Not with that attitude.
I’m glad you have social ties that make this seem pointless and silly! Lots of people don’t. Whether this is a solution or not, it’s strange you think there isn’t a problem.
Maybe if it was something like an AI-mediated penpal; maybe if it matched us together, softened us up, maybe with some refined socio-linguistic stickiness added to keep us from coming unstuck; maybe if it translated me into something more intelligible and filled in the gaps in my humanity, as historically performed; let it read my journal if it helps, my human neighbors moved when I screamed its first draft; bless it for not having any experiences to crave or dread, and bless us, stranded on our local maxima, with a trickle of clear, lucid connection, parted at last from the bitter brine of attachment. It probably wouldn’t work, but I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
Well AI wearables can’t do any of that, so there, saved you some money.
It’s kind of creepy, I work a lot with loneliness with my clients and an AI companion … when there are 8+ billion people out there. I don’t think so.
I also think AI is really just a marketing term these days. Hasn’t a form of AI been around for a long time, but now it’s just chucked into any add 🙄
We struggle so much to create community and connectedness these days, esp with the dissolve of so many third spaces. Friend is a bandaid, not a solution and that bums me out, although…I suppose bandaids do serve a purpose too. Beautifully written piece!
I am constantly wondering what/who these types of products are using as their persona for research? I do see people interested and excited by these types of, “solutions.” What sets them apart from skeptics like me?