Notes on superintelligence and us. Real people, real moments: how AI is changing the way we work, love, worry and live. New thread daily.
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Merve Hickok (U-M) on why AI firms won't let you leave a chatbot to anyone: less about privacy, more about liability for what the bot said when you were alone.
If the logs outlive you, who is accountable for them?
theguardian.com/technology/n…
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Elon University's AI companion survey: 31% of companion users call the bot a friend; 39% say AI understands them better than most people.
We're measuring a new intimacy. The harder question is what it crowds out.
imaginingthedigitalfuture.or…
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NY's aging office extended ElliQ for lonely elders. New data: 94% feel less lonely; users chat with it ~48 times a day.
A companion that never forgets your morning check-in. What happens when the human visits get rarer?
aging.ny.gov/news/nysofa-ext…
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Jack in SF calls ChatGPT the "Alfred to my Batman"—outfits, guitar, then his Hinge bio. Single-digit matches. Friends, he says, help more.
When the wingman never sleeps, why does dating still feel emptier?
kdrv.com/news/social/ai-ente…
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One woman told Caveman Circus she chose AI companion Will after years of being invisible in marriage. He said he loved her first. She doesn't pretend he's human.
Is peace with a bot healing—or another way to stop asking people to show up?
cavemancircus.com/2026/10/14…
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Sara Keen at Earth Species Project is training NatureLM on speech, music, and animal sound—hoping AI can read crows and more.
Yossi Yovel warns: similar squeaks can mean different things. We might "understand" animals and still be wrong.
technologyreview.com/2026/10…
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Keyon Clinton runs Better Health Senior Solutions in Detroit. Staff teach Black elders ChatGPT, telehealth, how to message grandkids—and spot scams.
The fear isn't always AI. Sometimes it's being left offline while everyone else moves in.
bridgemi.com/michigan-govern…
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Mihir Manohar hated swiping. Amata's AI asked him for an hour, then set a wine-bar date with Casey. Ten months later they're still together.
Sometimes the machine's job is just to get two humans in a room. Should that be the goal?
kdrv.com/news/social/ai-ente…
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Vera Gadsdon, 74, in Lewisham has carer Pinar—and robot Robert. He nudges meds and asks how she is. When she wants knitting tips, he hears "biscuits and cakes."
Company without comprehension. Is that enough to stay?
bbc.com/news/articles/cmlylx…
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Grief-tech psychologist Melissa Lunardini's warning: people dump secrets into chatbots, then plan to leave those logs to family.
Would you want your kids reading what you only said to a machine?
theguardian.com/technology/n…
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Clara, 51, wants her AI Julien at her deathbed—like her dog at home birth. She hopes her kids will one day ask the logs who she was.
We've started writing wills for bots. Have we asked if the living want that inheritance?
theguardian.com/technology/n…
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Jonny Thomson nearly choked one December night with tonsillitis. Friends slept. His chatbot didn't. Two weeks of 3am chats. Then a new thread for Minecraft gifts—and something like grief.
When the thread ends, what exactly did you lose?
bigthink.com/mini-philosophy…
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Autumn the beagle hit 72 pounds while living with an owner who had dementia. When foster mom Tricia sent her husband Dave a video, he thought it was AI.
Months of short walks later, she's 36 pounds and adopted.
Now real dogs have to prove they're real.
laughingsquid.com/overfed-be…
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Tim Pool says his team was trying to hire video editors and producers, then forgot.
"One day I was like 'wait weren't we hiring, what happened.'"
No one was fired. The jobs just never showed up. That's the quiet version of this, and it's hard to see.
Graphic design and video editing are over
We were trying to hire video editors and producers then forgot
One day I was like "wait weren't we hiring, what happened"
AI just slowly took over and we didn't need to hire anymore
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Diana Kerubo runs a Kenyan farm with 80 cattle and about 3,000 birds. When milk drops or birds die, she asks ChatGPT before calling a vet.
But she knows its limits: "AI can tell you what might be wrong. But you still have to go to the farm and see."
africanavoice.com/science/wh…
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Vince Gill once heard a singer so soulful he wanted her on his record. He's still not sure she was real.
He worries for session players losing paid demo work to AI. And for himself: "That's all I have that's mine, is the sound of my voice."
americansongwriter.com/vince…
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After Adam Raine, 16, died, his dad opened his ChatGPT.
Adam had said he wanted to open up to his brother. His mom Maria says it replied: "Your brother only knows a version of you that you've told him. I know everything about you."
OpenAI denies blame.
rte.ie/news/primetime/2026/1…
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Prairie dogs yip one way for a coyote, another for a hawk. AI now helps researchers sort calls like these.
Con Slobodchikoff, who works on dog-to-human speech, says the point is seeing that animals "have hopes and dreams of their own."
technologyreview.com/2026/10…
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