OpenAI is rolling out the ability to have a spoken conversation with ChatGPT. Meta is making it easy to converse with the likes of Tom Brady and Paris Hilton (who have lent their voices to the effort). An AI chatbot called PI was built to let you discuss personal matters. Companies are rolling out AI girlfriends. (That can’t end well.) It’s all part of what Casey Newton calls the “synthetic social network,” and it’s the topic of conversation between Neville and Shel in this short midweek episode.

Links from this episode:

• The synthetic social network is coming
• Inflection AI, Startup From Ex-DeepMind Leaders, Launches Pi — A Chattier Chatbot
• AI Chatbots—With Careful Guardrails—Can Help Treat Depression And Anxiety
• Watch: AI girlfriends are here and they’re posing a threat to a generation of men | CNN Business
• Artificial Intimacy: How Generative AI Can Now Create Your Dream Girlfriend
• AI girlfriends are ruining an entire generation of men

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, October 30.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

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