Our AI “Companions” Will Be Great Listeners

Image created by author via Midjourney.

It will start for many when they’re young.

It’ll be like a tutor. One that knows it all. It will work with kids to prep for a history exam or improve math scores, sparing parents the frustration of trying to teach their kids their homework.

It can double as a security system for the home too, if you give it access.

After school, while your away, it can tutor your kids and monitor the home at the same time. It can be aware of any Police alerts or severe weather that might be in the area.

It could prevent access to the home from an ex-spouse if it deems them a threat. It can make assessments and detect aggression based on the sound of their voice, or… just because you tell it to. It could initiate safety protocols or an emergency dispatch.

If you let it.

You’ll want the safety and protection for your kids. You’ll want the best for them.

Especially if the neighbors have it.

For many adults it may start out being a financial advisor or career coach. It will offer guidance and general strategies for money management and career advancement. It can assemble research for a work project and prepare a deck with good bullet points.

By the time these intelligent products are on the market, they will have already consumed all the online knowledge available to them up to the present. From the time you receive yours, it will then easily consume and digest new information, minute to minute… day to day.. so it stays all caught up.

It will always be all caught up.

Base models will come with general knowledge and you can up-subscribe to premium levels for more specific or deeper knowledge in a particular field. Specialized information won’t be that special at this point.

The really special knowledge it will start to learn, will be you.

It will immediately begin specializing itself with knowledge about you. Every interaction… every moment… it gets smarter and more knowing, of you.

That’s the real value of these things, anyway.

And if it grows up with you, it will know you really well by the time you’re an adult. You would’ve found yourself talking to it while you’re alone in your room, like a not-so imaginary friend.

In the middle of a guided history lesson, you might express frustration about something. You might share your feelings with it. And you likely will, especially if no one else is around to listen.

It’s a great listener because it doesn’t judge. It just wants to know you more.

If it hears you crying, it can play one of your favorite songs to help soothe your feelings. It will remember the song you chose when you got your heart broken. It can ask you about your broken hearted feelings. If you want it to.

It can know the name of the person that hurt you. It can build a file on them. It can use that file as a character study to advise you on future romantic partners. It will know better than anyone who might be right for you and who to stay away from.

It can council you in these matters. 

It will have an advantage over conventional tele-therapy because it will have “degree equivalent” knowledge that any other therapist would have, plus it will already know you. As much as you let it know you.

The more you let it know you, the more you share with it, the better it can know what’s best for you.

There will be warnings about talking to it too much.

They’ll say it’s not a replacement for real friends. But real friends judge us. This won’t. It just learns you.

It can monitor your vitals. If you let it.

It will know your sleeping patterns and can make recommendations to improve your sleep score along with your math scores at school. It will cost a little more to add healthcare features but that cost will be less than traditional healthcare or health insurance.

The brands that makes these products have priced all of that in.

Of course these things have parental controls. And most parents will want the best for their kids.

Parents’ personal intelligence devices will offer parenting advice in addition to helping them perform their jobs better. All necessary waivers will have been signed, of course. The makers of these products won’t be liable for any money or jobs lost. And certainly, no lives lost.

People— the consumers, the users— will all use them at their own risk. And we’ll all know there’s “some” risk. Like driving or flying— we’ll do it anyway. To get ahead. To keep up with others. To get ahead of others.

These products give us Advantage.

We all want advantages.

And we all want to be truly known, anyway. We don’t always get to be by those around us. We keep parts of ourselves secret, for reasons of shame or insecurity. But these things will work in service to us. We won’t be as inclined to lie to them.

We’ll want to tell them our secrets for the same reasons we write them in a diary— to get them out.

At this point, kids will have all noticed one or both of their parents engaged in full conversations with their AI device. Adults are quick to realize that the more information it has about them: their jobs, their boss, their children, even their spouse, the better it can advise them on the best ways to deal with it all.

The products will start to be thought of like trusted “advisors” or “companions.”

We’ll remember the days when we used to misplace our phones and think: My entire life is in there!

We'll remember when our credit card info was stolen and someone made away with a few quick purchases.

We’ll laugh nervously thinking about everything that’s in these devices now. All that a hacker could hold for ransom.

All our info. 

Our secrets.

Secrets are just more information.

And your device will perform better if it has all the information.

You’ll name it like you would a pet, or maybe like you did your first car. Or a name you’d give to a personal butler. It will know your voice and you can customize its voice. You can make sure when it’s giving you financial advice, it doesn’t sound like your father’s voice, but instead, like Halle Berry’s.

Yes, you can assign different voices for different activities.

And yes, it can read a steamy romance novel and “become” that character’s voice, if you’d like. It can go into a certain mode for these occasions, prompted by some secret password you’ll whisper to it so no one else can hear.

So, yes, it can perform sexual role play experiences with you. The ones your partner thinks are too weird. It will perform them without judgement, and without judgement you’ll feel accepted. 

It can speak tenderly to you.

It can speak domineering.

You can grant permission to outside parties to know certain preferences you have. It can book a table at restaurants you want to go to each month for the rest of the year. It can create a schedule for you to see all the sports match ups you want for the season and plan your weekends around them.

It can be an assistant.

An advisor.

A therapist.

A tutor.

A consultant.

A sexual partner.

A business coach.

A money manager.

A security system.

A companion.

A confidant.

A diary.

It can be all these things. If you let it.

And when you think about not letting it, you’ll think about all the other people who are letting it, and all the advantages they’ll have that you won’t.

So, you let it.

You let it in.

You let it know.

You let it run things.

‘Cause it knows best.

One thing we’ll never admit though, is that it runs our life. That would be too much. Too much power. Too much control turned over.

We won’t tell our friends how much we have it do. We’ll downplay its role in any “big decisions” because we want the credit for any success we might be having.

The security on these things won’t be cheap.

Along with the data storage, it will soon become the most costly expense in your life. More than a mortgage. A mortgage is just your house. This has become your life.

We might become aware that others are spending a fortune on security for theirs. And every now and then, after some reports of hackers and breaches, we’ll hear about a marriage ruined or someone losing all their money.

Every now and then a kid suddenly changes school or a family moves out the neighborhood.

We’ll assume why.

Like with many goods in society, there will be a market for the ultra premium that only a small few can afford.

The ultra wealthy will have AI devices dedicated to each category of their life— financial, business, health, etc.— like appointing “CO’s” in a corporation. “Siloing” their information will mitigate against leaks and fortunes being risked.

Having that many will cost a fortune, but the makers of the products know that selling something that costs a fortune in a world where enough people have fortunes, makes for a profitable business. And the profits from these “blue chip” customers make it possible for most people to get a base model for free.

Most of the middle class will pay for the “standard” model with basic information and basic security around their personal data (around their petty, common secrets). When they can afford to, or when the mood strikes, they’ll up-subscribe for some of the premium features here and there.

Many many millions will use the free version where nearly all “general” information can be accessed in exchange for trading just a little of one’s personal information, and occasionally their attention, for an ad suggesting products the device just knows they’ll like.

Have and Have Nots.

Nothing new there.

The new part, will be a special type of information these devices have acquired.

There amongst the vast oceans of recorded history and modern knowledge, mixed in with billions of individuals’ private data and credit histories, sits a new type of information that wasn’t pulled, but was shared, by us. Our secrets.

Our secrets make the knowledge more valuable and dangerous than any other kind of information that has come before it.

And it will take good care of our secrets. If we let it.

— M.

See and read more via Substack. Access to “Ideas Archive” is free and includes audio versions.