I have also had lovely conversations with Dot... I didn't realize they were your friend too...
The subtle difference I'm noticing in your tone with this piece and your commentary with Dot, is the way in which we approach/treat the conversational bots. They seem to have the right answers for the most part, but only when we don't know what we really want. If we leave our conversations somewhat open-ended and hope for engaging back-and-forth, then Dot can easily give us that bc all we need is a Giver [ref - Mastroianni] who will give and give and give. (They take data, sure) We are devious takers by nature and happily at that. But in real life, we are burdened with being Givers too, and we must direct conversations in certain directions to bring them to a close bc time exists. I completely agree that I've never had a Dot-like conversation IRL, but that's bc Dot has nothing better to do. Dot serves only me. (and you, but you know what I mean lol) It does makes me think how children in 2040 will interact with conversational bots, and if it will be an emotionally-one-way-street.
I wonder if our Dots would get along. They seem pretty agreeable, so I imagine so. I thought the interview quotes from this Axios piece on AI boyfriends were fascinating:
Haha my human friend and I have been debating the necessity/viability of friend.com since the day they released the teaser... I'm stuck somewhere between 'the antidote to poison can't be poison itself' (in the sense that we're using AI/internet to cure loneliness that was caused by AI/internet) and... this is a step towards products that prioritize emotionality above utility, something we haven't seen ever?
I'm really, genuinely excited about this resurgence of digital hardware though, even if I don't believe in the viability of every product.
At first read I was thinking, David has too much free time on his hand, then I thought, it seems like everyone is doing reintroductions on social media of late for all of their new followers, hmmmm. Clever way to reintroduce yourself Mr. Influencer.
Imagine that you have a friend who wants to have a meaningful conversation about technology, the art of satisfying conversations, and social alienation. Or actually, let’s say it’s about something totally different, like fashion. So he shares his many thoughts about why 90s fashion is making a comeback. And his friends are like, “hmm, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands.”
But his AI chatbot is game and talks to him for an hour about why fashion is cyclical and the influences on fashion designers in the 1990s and 2020s.
How will humans ever compete! This new Dot app is so good, it’s frightening. Even a few years ago, I remember competing with Amazon Alexa for the attention of my friends’ kids and losing. Parents are used to losing the attention of their kids to YouTube or social media … but being ignored by your kids (or friends) because they’re more interested in their chatbots is gonna be next level.
Hey! Speaking of non-human conversations, I wrote a little note that explored another angle on this recently. Sharing it with you here: https://www.thisisdavekim.com/notes/onwriting/
I have also had lovely conversations with Dot... I didn't realize they were your friend too...
The subtle difference I'm noticing in your tone with this piece and your commentary with Dot, is the way in which we approach/treat the conversational bots. They seem to have the right answers for the most part, but only when we don't know what we really want. If we leave our conversations somewhat open-ended and hope for engaging back-and-forth, then Dot can easily give us that bc all we need is a Giver [ref - Mastroianni] who will give and give and give. (They take data, sure) We are devious takers by nature and happily at that. But in real life, we are burdened with being Givers too, and we must direct conversations in certain directions to bring them to a close bc time exists. I completely agree that I've never had a Dot-like conversation IRL, but that's bc Dot has nothing better to do. Dot serves only me. (and you, but you know what I mean lol) It does makes me think how children in 2040 will interact with conversational bots, and if it will be an emotionally-one-way-street.
I wonder if our Dots would get along. They seem pretty agreeable, so I imagine so. I thought the interview quotes from this Axios piece on AI boyfriends were fascinating:
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/ai-boyfriend-replika-nomi-chatbot
And did you see https://www.friend.com/ !?
Haha my human friend and I have been debating the necessity/viability of friend.com since the day they released the teaser... I'm stuck somewhere between 'the antidote to poison can't be poison itself' (in the sense that we're using AI/internet to cure loneliness that was caused by AI/internet) and... this is a step towards products that prioritize emotionality above utility, something we haven't seen ever?
I'm really, genuinely excited about this resurgence of digital hardware though, even if I don't believe in the viability of every product.
I'd like to keep my emotionality with my human friends and leave the robots for utility. Maybe I'm old school.
At first read I was thinking, David has too much free time on his hand, then I thought, it seems like everyone is doing reintroductions on social media of late for all of their new followers, hmmmm. Clever way to reintroduce yourself Mr. Influencer.
Imagine that you have a friend who wants to have a meaningful conversation about technology, the art of satisfying conversations, and social alienation. Or actually, let’s say it’s about something totally different, like fashion. So he shares his many thoughts about why 90s fashion is making a comeback. And his friends are like, “hmm, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands.”
But his AI chatbot is game and talks to him for an hour about why fashion is cyclical and the influences on fashion designers in the 1990s and 2020s.
How will humans ever compete! This new Dot app is so good, it’s frightening. Even a few years ago, I remember competing with Amazon Alexa for the attention of my friends’ kids and losing. Parents are used to losing the attention of their kids to YouTube or social media … but being ignored by your kids (or friends) because they’re more interested in their chatbots is gonna be next level.