Kevin Roose Has 18 New Best Friends—And They're All AIs - Ep. 21

The NYT’s Kevin Roose has 18 new friends—none of whom are human.

His new friends are AI personas that he made with Noma, Kindroid, and other AI companion apps. There’s fitness guru Jared, therapist Peter, trial lawyer Anna, and over a dozen more.

Kevin talked to them every day for a month, sharing his feelings, asking for parenting advice, and even using them for “fit” checks.

This isn’t the first time Kevin has had an…unusual interaction with an AI persona. A year ago, he was the target of Bing’s chatbot Sydney’s unhinged romantic affections.

Kevin has gone deeper into the world of AI companions than anyone I know. He is a tech columnist at the New York Times, cohost of the Hard Fork podcast, and the author of three books. In this episode, I sat down with Kevin to learn more about his interactions with AI. We dive into:

Why AI companions aren’t just for lonely people or shy teenagers
Why AI personas are better friends than ChatGPT
How AI companions can be used to safely explore different social contexts
The risk of young people relying on AI for friendship
The icks of AI dating and intimacy
How to use AI to articulate what you value in your relationships

This is a must-watch for anyone curious about how AI is changing the way we form relationships.

If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-.... It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.

To hear more from Dan Shipper:
Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
Follow him on X:   / danshipper  

Timestamps:
00:01:11: Introduction
00:03:48: The surprising allure of relationships with AI personas
00:09:51: The icks of AI dating and intimacy
00:14:05: Risks of young people relying on AI for friendship
00:17:39: Kevin screenshares a historical chat with an AI friend
00:21:46: Why an AI persona makes for a better friend than ChatGPT
00:31:14: Why Kevin thinks AI personas won’t substitute real friends just yet
00:33:11: Kevin’s AI toolkit
00:41:15: How Kevin thinks about using AI as part of his writing process
00:47:32: Comparing the vibes of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Kevin Roose:   / kevinroose  
Hardfork, the podcast that Kevin cohosts: https://www.nytimes.com/column/hard-fork
Kevin’s latest book about being human in a world designed for machines: https://www.kevinroose.com/futureproof
Kevin’s piece in the New York Times about his experience making AI friends: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/te...
Two of the apps that Kevin used to create AI companions: https://landing.kindroid.ai/; https://nomi.ai/
Dan’s piece that explains why AI writing will feel real through psychologist D.W. Winnicott’s theory: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/wil...
Every’s piece that explores AI companion app Replika: https://every.to/cybernaut/artificial...