I had been meaning to make a feed for exactly that! but kept forgetting! so yay, thank you, now there are two of us!

That Yuval Noah Harari article is fantastic. It reminds me a lot of that TED Talk about advertising algorithms—this tech/future isn't even theoretical! it's in Google!

That said:

Your AI sidekick will learn by experience that you have a particular weakness – whether for funny cat videos or for infuriating Trump stories – and would block them on your behalf.

made me have an ENTIRE feeling, a feeling that could probably be labeled "longing." AI as service non-animals would be a dream come true.

(At the risk of self-sabotage by talking about a thing I'm doing:) I'm actually learning to code for Alexa right now in an attempt to realize my "bond with an AI" dreams by making an emotional support app that allows for socialization/helps with mental health, I've actually been thinking a lot lately about the line between "use technology to help us" and "worry about the power technology has over us," particularly when that tech is connected to a really horrible megacorporation. Questions like: does my single-user app matter, will Amazon even notice it? (Verdict: probably not.) Should I still worry about secure connections and data gathering? (Verdict: probably!)

ANYWAY you are super welcome. This is a grade-A fixation for me and it was a joy to share it with someone!