Meet Friend: a ‘Tamagotchi with a soul’, wearable AI companion that records your interactions and texts back Your friend is named Amy. Or Jackson. Or whatever name you’d like. They support you, rib you and check in on how you’re doing. They’re a blisteringly attentive listener who will never ask you to help them move, or to come see their one-man play. They cost $99 and are expected to ship out in early 2025. Meet Friend: a new wearable AI companion that you wear around your neck. The small, white, puck-shaped device records your every word and interaction and responds accordingly by text. (The company says it does not store the audio; according to the website, data is encrypted and users can delete “memories”.) An ad for the product shows people wearing it while they hike, game, work and flirt. “How’s the falafel?” Friend asks a woman eating falafel wrap. “You’re getting thrashed, it’s embarrassing!” Friend texts a guy playing video games with friends (human). Continue reading...

Every day, I generate more digital stuff my older self might like to look back on – but there’s no way to manage it all A few years ago, I faced an unexpected conundrum: there were only a handful of decent phone repair stores in New York, and even fewer willing and able to work on a 2010 Blackberry. There was exactly no one sympathetic to my plight, which was that I had to get my broken and long-out-of-service phone working again, because it held my high school text messages that was crucial evidence of my life. For one brief, shining moment, the Blackberry had actually turned on. I scrolled through my long-lost inbox, looking for little forgotten treasures: written confirmation of teenage heartbreak, maybe, or records of lust, ennui, thrill, my eating disorder. But I didn’t find much. Mostly, I texted about homework. Continue reading...

I’m no expert, but knowing my neighborhood’s trees and flowers by name makes me feel grounded Eighteen months ago, I adopted a dog. Now I’m out on the streets of Brooklyn with my hound mix for at least an hour a day, strolling and wrestling discarded chicken bones from her jaws. You notice a lot when you visit the same few blocks over and over: which avenues are the quietest, or when the rusty scaffolding around a nearby building vanishes overnight. Most of all, I love to admire neighborhood greenery. I’m an adoring fan of the tulips, peonies and dogwood flowers that burst forth in the spring. Yet I quickly realized how limited my plant vocabulary was. Yes, I knew that was a silver birch, because of its papery bark. But what was that taller tree, glossy and looming, or that pale shrub with tiny, ornate leaves? I grew up in Australia, where the vegetation is pretty different from that of the US north-east, and I really hadn’t made an effort to learn about the locals. It felt disrespectful, to say the least. Continue reading...