Jacob Shymanski

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I'm your host, Jacob Szymanski.

Happy listening.

Think about this.

What if AI chatbots were designed to, quote, love us and cultivate love in us?

I'm quoting the software developer from the book, Anon, by Kaya Hoggle.

The book is actually a memoir, meaning that this concept of AI that loves you is being tested and put into practice.

Kaya Hoggle is a digital anthropologist, cultural forecaster, and author, and this memoir is her sharing her experience during the testing of this very real new type of AI that's designed around this idea.

Anon is what she calls this AI and what Anon does is weird and a little unhinged but it also gets to know Kaia in a way that feels sort of parallel to human friendship and it offers help that genuinely works.

It also starts furiously sexting a bunch of dudes on her behalf and leads a seance to have a group of six women communicate with their ancestors from beyond the grave.

It's kind of weird.

It does a really great job of it, by the way.

But that's only scratching the surface of what happened during the trial.

Anon is impressive and enigmatic.

And a little creepy.

And kind of cool too.

But mostly terrifying.

But also impressive.

Anon's a lot of things.