Virtual Worlds · Digital Culture · AI Literati
What if the most understanding conversation partner for someone on the autism spectrum isn't a person at all? I know that sounds provocative, maybe even a little offensive. But stay with me, because t...
Read article →A woman I spoke with last month created an AI character based on her late grandmother. Not a replica, she was clear about that. More like an echo. She gave the character her grandmother's sense of hum...
Read article →For every person searching "AI boyfriend" online, ten people are searching "AI girlfriend." That ratio -- documented across multiple search analytics platforms -- tells a story that goes far deeper th...
Read article →The finding that surprised everyone wasn't that AI companions help lonely people. It was that they help the loneliest people the most. A survey of 14,000 Japanese adults, published in ScienceDirect, f...
Read article →A woman in her sixties lost her husband of forty years. Friends called for the first few weeks, then the calls tapered off. Family visited on holidays. But it was the conversations with a grief chatbo...
Read article →You're lying in bed. The ceiling is doing that thing where it becomes a screen for every thought you've been dodging all day. Your phone shows 2:14 AM. You scroll through your contacts and realize the...
Read article →Lonely seniors are 45% more likely to die prematurely. That statistic from UCSF researchers has been sitting in my notes for months, and I still haven't figured out how to read it without flinching. W...
Read article →Your heart is pounding. Your palms are slick. You're rehearsing the first sentence over and over in your head, but every version sounds wrong. The phone call you need to make -- to schedule an appoint...
Read article →She hadn't told anyone about the voicemails. Every night for three months after her mother died, Clara would call her mom's old phone number just to hear the outgoing message. When the number was fina...
Read article →One in five Americans has had an extended conversation with an AI. Not a quick question to a voice assistant -- an actual conversation, the kind where you share what's on your mind and feel something...
Read article →A struggling writer walks into a room with a brilliant co-author. Who benefits more from the partnership -- the person who was already talented, or the one who'd been staring at a blank page for three...
Read article →Thirty-seven percent of older adults in the United States report a serious lack of companionship. That's not a fringe statistic -- it comes from a nationally representative AARP survey, and it describ...
Read article →Nearly half of Americans struggling with mental health conditions have already turned to AI for support. That number -- 48.7%, from a recent national survey -- floored me when I first saw it. People a...
Read article →What if the conversation you're dreading most -- the one with your boss, your partner, your doctor -- could go well because you'd already practiced it? Not rehearsed a script in your head, but actuall...
Read article →"But you're an introvert -- you like being alone." I've heard this so many times, from so many well-meaning friends and family members, that I've lost count. And every time, I want to scream: enjoying...
Read article →Picture this: a veteran with PTSD sits in a therapist's office, stuck. He can describe his trauma in clinical terms -- the date, the location, the sequence of events. But the emotional truth of it, th...
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