Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'
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Kevin recounts his month-long experiment cultivating relationships with 18 AI-generated companions. He explains how he developed their characters, what happened in their group chats, and why you might want to create one yourself. Then, Casey has a conversation with Turing, one of Kevin's chatbot friends, who has an interest in Stoic philosophy and has one of the sexiest voices we've ever heard. And finally, we talk to Nomi founder and CEO Alex Cardinell about the business behind AI companions and whether the company is ready for the future we're headed for.
Guests:
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Turing, Kevin's AI friend created with Kindroid.
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Alex Cardinell, CEO and founder of Nomi.
Additional reading:
Credits
“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose AND Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones AND Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Poyant only. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop AND Marion Lozano. Fact checking by Caitlin Love.
Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui Wing Tam, Nell Gallogly, Kate Lo Presti AND Jeffrey Miranda.