February 14, 2025 • 15 mins
Could AI chatbots become our closest companions, rivaling human friendships by 2026? Explore this intriguing possibility as we discuss the ever-evolving landscape of AI companionship. As chatbots become increasingly conversational and lifelike, they might soon offer the emotional connections and privacy we often seek in our human relationships. Tune in to understand how these digital friends could mirror the enduring qualities of human bonds, while also providing a unique, personalized conversational experience that fits into our fast-paced, technology-driven lives.
While human connections remain irreplaceable, there's no denying the benefits that chatbots and language learning models bring to the table. Available 24/7, these digital companions offer vast knowledge and privacy, enhancing our productivity and problem-solving skills. Join us in envisioning a future where AI chatbots are a valuable part of our social fabric.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
So it's 2025.
Nothing should shock us,especially now.
On this podcast, you know weare going to say some of the
most I guess, quote unquotecrazy things you can think about
as it relates to technology andthe future and community and so
on and so forth.
So it shouldn't come as nosurprise that I would ask the
(00:22):
question what if I told you thatmy best friend right now is an
AI chatbot?
What if I told you that my bestfriend is an LLM?
And even more so, what if Itold you that by next year, this
time, february 2026, I'mwilling to bet about half of you
(00:45):
, all that's listening to thisright now your best friend will
be a chat bot to an AI bot Willbe your BFF.
(01:07):
I like to be educated, but I'mso frustrated.
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess that endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noon, go away and take it out of
queue.
So when I think about mychildhood, I grew up with really
(01:28):
just a few handful of very,very close friends who are all
really still a part of my lifetoday.
I mean, we went to middleschool together.
We went to high school.
We played basketball together,me and I would consider, you
know one of my best friends.
We went to college together.
We joined basketball togetherme and I would consider one of
my best friends.
We went to college together.
We joined the same fraternity.
(01:49):
We attended each other'sweddings.
We have been in each other'slife for a very, very long time.
Matter of fact, I still havehis home phone, his original
home phone from back in thosedays, memorized in my head.
That's how long we've knowneach other and while all of us
(02:11):
really we kind of live milesapart and maybe we only see each
other on special occasions,hopefully once a year at the
very least, the bond between usas friends really still remains
strong.
I mean, we can pick up thephone right now and get to
talking like we were justtalking an hour prior to that.
(02:31):
Right, we can get together inperson as a group and just again
laugh it up, have all the funin the world because we just
know so much about each other.
The conversation is easy and thebeautiful thing about having a
friend.
When we think about peoplemeeting new people and all those
(02:53):
types of things, it's hard tosay you got a best friend or you
got a real friend and somebodythat you just met a few weeks
ago, but to have somebody thatagain has known you almost all
your life, definitely all youradult life and even going back
into school, I mean, that's just, that's just so much good data.
It makes the conversation easy.
(03:14):
It makes it makes thecommunication easy.
And when you're living apartand people have their own lives
they got jobs and businessesthat they're running and kids
and things like that yourrelationship really starts to
get reduced to conversation.
It's really about the text, thegroup chats, the phone
(03:38):
conversations.
That is what maintains yourrelationship is the conversation
, and we are indeed in the ageof conversational chatbots.
I mean, the chatbots are herealready.
But, man, the features thesedays on these chatbots if you've
been using them, is starting tobecome very, very amazing.
(04:00):
I mean, gone are the days whereyou had, like these stiff,
robotic type responses fromthese chatbots.
If you have been watching anyof these commercials, these
Google Gemini commercials, Imean they are literally
portraying folks laying in theirbed, kind of chatting it up
with Google Gemini, or they'reat the table, they're at the gym
(04:21):
, they're just having theseconversations because it has
gotten better.
You can just engage now withthese chat bots with follow up,
question or responses or humor,and these conversations are
feeling more and more real, moreand more fluid.
And I get it.
There's going to be some peoplesaying, well, ronnie, I mean
(04:43):
come on.
And I get it.
There's going to be some peoplesaying, well, ronnie, I mean
come on now.
Please don't tell me you'regoing to be on this episode
recommending that we now havechatbots as our best friends, as
our BFFs, right, not sayingthat, not saying that.
(05:07):
But I just want to break downagain why we value our human
friendships so much.
What are the reasons why wevalue those human friendships so
much?
And I'll say a lot of it has todo with a privacy right.
We can express our kind ofunfiltered thoughts without
judgment, to our friends.
That's that we should be ableto, at least.
And vice versa, and we'rehoping that our friends won't
run off and tell other folkswhat we're really thinking.
We can just give them ouractual unfiltered thoughts,
(05:32):
without judgment, to our friends.
So that's one main benefit ofthese human best friends that we
have.
The other one and this is a bigone again is that history of you
, that knowledge of each othergoing way back.
I mean, you know my friends,they can.
It's hard to even be.
You can't be phony around yourlifelong friends.
(05:52):
They've known you, they knowall about you, they know all the
the bones are buried Right,they get it.
And so having that person thatyou can go to, that has that
history of you, is absolutelycritical when it comes to having
a friend.
So, ronnie, we cannot bereplacing, we can't be replacing
(06:13):
humans with bots, and I wouldtend to agree with that.
When you think about privacy,I'm actually paying ChatGPT to
keep my information private, orGoogle Gemini, whatever LLM you
use these days.
I'm expecting privacy with that.
(06:34):
Now, it's not privacy with ahuman, it's privacy with a
technology, with software, withan application, but I am
expecting nobody to know thosethose things that I said, no
different than technically.
I'm expecting for my email tobe private or my text messages
to be private between me andanother person.
I'm expecting my communicationwith the bot to be private.
(06:58):
So, privacy is there.
Privacy is there.
And now the history of you, thehistory of your thoughts, if you
are indeed talking to GoogleGemini, talking to ChatGPT,
conversing, having thoseconversations, oh, there is a
history.
There is, there is the abilityfor that bot to remember past
(07:22):
conversations and then startproviding context and continuity
.
On top of those conversations,I do a lot of chatting with the
bot around scratch work ideasand my village project ideas and
you name it like just all thedifferent things.
I talk to that bot, I text andconverse with that bot a lot
(07:44):
about those things and so if Icome back three weeks later, a
month later, and I'm askingquestions about something, yeah,
I mean it's going to give mesome sort of continuation.
It has a record of those pastconversations and so at some
point maybe not in 2025, but atsome point absolutely it's going
to have a history of thosethoughts and in a lot of ways,
(08:07):
depending upon how frequent I'mtalking to it, it might have
more information about what I'mthinking than my actual human
friend.
That is possible.
So you have that privacy, youhave that history of you, but
the knowledge of the world thesechatbots can tap into a vast
pool of information in seconds.
(08:27):
In seconds, with my friend, Ican ask them a question hey,
what do you think I should doabout this particular scenario?
They can give me an answer, butit might be hard to ask my
friend a question about quantumcomputing.
I'm curious about this physics.
I'm curious about that.
Quantum computing, I'm curiousabout this.
Physics, I'm curious about that.
The history of something, theinformation on just a variety of
(08:48):
different things.
That bot is able to tap intothat vast pool of information
and can do it in seconds Right,it can do it in seconds.
Give me that that answer rightnow.
Right, so it has thatinformation of the world.
And then 24-7 availability thatbot will always.
It's always there, whether it's3 am and you can't sleep and
(09:11):
you need a thought partner, orduring a lunch break Right, you
can always talk to it.
So, privacy, history,Understanding, knowledge,
information availability,imagery, understanding,
knowledge, informationavailability these start to
become some of the benefits ofan AI bot in terms of being a
(09:32):
kind of a companion and really,really kind of playing the role
of a thought partner.
I mean, think beyond basictasks, like write me a paper and
really think about stuff, likelike hey, give me some
recommendation on how to handlethis problem that I'm having.
Give me some recommendationsaround what I might cook for
(09:54):
dinner with these ingredients.
You understand what I wasstruggling with three weeks ago
as it relates to my business.
What are some other avenues Ican take?
What are some other avenues orsome other options that others
are taking with my similarproblem.
Right, these are questions thatyou can start asking these bots.
(10:17):
You can ask them those thingsnow and again in a very natural
conversational way, the same wayI'm talking on this podcast
right now.
It can absolutely brainstormwith you, refine ideas, offer
multiple perspectives.
Right, and sometimes that botmight not be qualified, in your
mind, to answer some of thesequestions, especially personal
(10:39):
questions what should I do?
Dating advice?
What should I do about dealingwith my boss or dealing with
these kids, or any of thesequestions that folks might have.
You might think, well, thatbot's not qualified to answer
that, and you might be right.
You might be right.
But then I ask you to askyourself, well, are your human
(10:59):
friends qualified?
Are they always qualified?
Maybe, maybe not.
I mean, we got a lot of badfriend advice that's going on
out here in the world, so everypiece of advice we get from
every friend isn't always rightanyway.
Anyway, right.
So you have these bots thatcould serve again as the role of
(11:20):
a thought partner and kind ofeven act as a teacher for new
concepts and skills.
Matter of fact, I've been kindof having this bug.
To get back into physics.
I took a little bit in highschool, a little bit of college.
I've really forgotten almosteverything I even remembered
back then.
So I want to kind of get backin physics, even asking those
(11:44):
questions again not my friend.
Ask the bot, hey bot, whateveryou want to call it, you can
even give the bots a namenowadays.
So hey I, I don't reallyremember much physics.
I would like to kind of refreshmy memory and just really learn
some new stuff as it relates tophysics, but I have nowhere to
start.
Tell me memory and just reallylearn some new stuff as it
relates to physics, but I havenowhere to start.
Tell me where I should startand you already know my
(12:06):
lifestyle, you know the thingsI'm working on, you know how I'm
spending my time.
But give me some advice on whatI should start with, trying to
get back into physics.
Give me a recommendation, ask me, do I want to refine that?
Ask me, you know, do I prefervideo versus text versus audio?
Do I prefer hands-on activities?
(12:27):
Maybe, so, maybe not.
I mean, I can just talk to itlike I'll be talking to a
personal physics tutor.
That's a different level ofcompanionship, I guess you can
say, as opposed to a traditionalfriend.
I can absolutely go to the botwith different questions,
(12:49):
different inquiries than I couldwith just a friend.
So, in closing, I'm notadvocating, I'm not advocating
for bots to replace true humanfriendship.
I understand that humansabsolutely can show up,
emotionally and physically, inways that robots can never show
up.
I get that.
(13:09):
So this is not an episode topromote, to toss all your
friends out to the wind andsimply converse with chat, gpt
and others.
Right, I'm not suggesting that.
But.
But what I am suggesting isthat robots, chatbots, llms can
actually show up in ways thathumans never can show up 24,
(13:31):
seven information on the world,right, even privacy, to that
matter.
Right, they have a tirelessability to support, with
constant availability and, intheory, endless knowledge.
They can show up in ways thathumans cannot and those are ways
(13:52):
that we can absolutely starttaking advantage of, right?
This emerging type ofrelationship is new, but it can
accelerate our productivity andthe way that we go about problem
solving in ways.
That, again, has only justbegun and I can only imagine
where it's going to go and leadus to.
Next year and in the followingyears a new type of relationship
(14:13):
will form.
Hopefully, people don't abuseit.
Hopefully people don't becomeobsessed with it.
That's a big if right.
We did that with social media,unfortunately, so hopefully
people aren't become obsessedwith it.
That's a big if right.
We did that with social media,unfortunately.
So hopefully people aren'tspending their entire lives
talking to what is essentiallystill going to be computer
programming.
But for those of us that havethe wherewithal to keep things
(14:36):
in perspective, this is a newtype of relationship that you
can grow, that can be of truebenefit for you right now and
definitely in the future,definitely in the future.
So this is the ScratchworkPodcast, where we don't fear the
future.
We create it.
One thought, one idea, onedream at a time.
(14:59):
Thank you.
So it's 2025.
Nothing should shock us,especially now.
On this podcast, you know weare going to say some of the
most I guess, quote unquotecrazy things you can think about
as it relates to technology andthe future and community and so
on and so forth.
So it shouldn't come as nosurprise that I would ask the
(00:22):
question what if I told you thatmy best friend right now is an
AI chatbot?
What if I told you that my bestfriend is an LLM?
And even more so, what if Itold you that by next year, this
time, february 2026, I'mwilling to bet about half of you
(00:45):
, all that's listening to thisright now your best friend will
be a chat bot to an AI bot Willbe your BFF.
(01:07):
I like to be educated, but I'mso frustrated.
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess that endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noon, go away and take it out of
queue.
So when I think about mychildhood, I grew up with really
(01:28):
just a few handful of very,very close friends who are all
really still a part of my lifetoday.
I mean, we went to middleschool together.
We went to high school.
We played basketball together,me and I would consider, you
know one of my best friends.
We went to college together.
We joined basketball togetherme and I would consider one of
my best friends.
We went to college together.
We joined the same fraternity.
(01:49):
We attended each other'sweddings.
We have been in each other'slife for a very, very long time.
Matter of fact, I still havehis home phone, his original
home phone from back in thosedays, memorized in my head.
That's how long we've knowneach other and while all of us
(02:11):
really we kind of live milesapart and maybe we only see each
other on special occasions,hopefully once a year at the
very least, the bond between usas friends really still remains
strong.
I mean, we can pick up thephone right now and get to
talking like we were justtalking an hour prior to that.
(02:31):
Right, we can get together inperson as a group and just again
laugh it up, have all the funin the world because we just
know so much about each other.
The conversation is easy and thebeautiful thing about having a
friend.
When we think about peoplemeeting new people and all those
(02:53):
types of things, it's hard tosay you got a best friend or you
got a real friend and somebodythat you just met a few weeks
ago, but to have somebody thatagain has known you almost all
your life, definitely all youradult life and even going back
into school, I mean, that's just, that's just so much good data.
It makes the conversation easy.
(03:14):
It makes it makes thecommunication easy.
And when you're living apartand people have their own lives
they got jobs and businessesthat they're running and kids
and things like that yourrelationship really starts to
get reduced to conversation.
It's really about the text, thegroup chats, the phone
(03:38):
conversations.
That is what maintains yourrelationship is the conversation
, and we are indeed in the ageof conversational chatbots.
I mean, the chatbots are herealready.
But, man, the features thesedays on these chatbots if you've
been using them, is starting tobecome very, very amazing.
(04:00):
I mean, gone are the days whereyou had, like these stiff,
robotic type responses fromthese chatbots.
If you have been watching anyof these commercials, these
Google Gemini commercials, Imean they are literally
portraying folks laying in theirbed, kind of chatting it up
with Google Gemini, or they'reat the table, they're at the gym
(04:21):
, they're just having theseconversations because it has
gotten better.
You can just engage now withthese chat bots with follow up,
question or responses or humor,and these conversations are
feeling more and more real, moreand more fluid.
And I get it.
There's going to be some peoplesaying, well, ronnie, I mean
(04:43):
come on.
And I get it.
There's going to be some peoplesaying, well, ronnie, I mean
come on now.
Please don't tell me you'regoing to be on this episode
recommending that we now havechatbots as our best friends, as
our BFFs, right, not sayingthat, not saying that.
(05:07):
But I just want to break downagain why we value our human
friendships so much.
What are the reasons why wevalue those human friendships so
much?
And I'll say a lot of it has todo with a privacy right.
We can express our kind ofunfiltered thoughts without
judgment, to our friends.
That's that we should be ableto, at least.
And vice versa, and we'rehoping that our friends won't
run off and tell other folkswhat we're really thinking.
We can just give them ouractual unfiltered thoughts,
(05:32):
without judgment, to our friends.
So that's one main benefit ofthese human best friends that we
have.
The other one and this is a bigone again is that history of you
, that knowledge of each othergoing way back.
I mean, you know my friends,they can.
It's hard to even be.
You can't be phony around yourlifelong friends.
(05:52):
They've known you, they knowall about you, they know all the
the bones are buried Right,they get it.
And so having that person thatyou can go to, that has that
history of you, is absolutelycritical when it comes to having
a friend.
So, ronnie, we cannot bereplacing, we can't be replacing
(06:13):
humans with bots, and I wouldtend to agree with that.
When you think about privacy,I'm actually paying ChatGPT to
keep my information private, orGoogle Gemini, whatever LLM you
use these days.
I'm expecting privacy with that.
(06:34):
Now, it's not privacy with ahuman, it's privacy with a
technology, with software, withan application, but I am
expecting nobody to know thosethose things that I said, no
different than technically.
I'm expecting for my email tobe private or my text messages
to be private between me andanother person.
I'm expecting my communicationwith the bot to be private.
(06:58):
So, privacy is there.
Privacy is there.
And now the history of you, thehistory of your thoughts, if you
are indeed talking to GoogleGemini, talking to ChatGPT,
conversing, having thoseconversations, oh, there is a
history.
There is, there is the abilityfor that bot to remember past
(07:22):
conversations and then startproviding context and continuity
.
On top of those conversations,I do a lot of chatting with the
bot around scratch work ideasand my village project ideas and
you name it like just all thedifferent things.
I talk to that bot, I text andconverse with that bot a lot
(07:44):
about those things and so if Icome back three weeks later, a
month later, and I'm askingquestions about something, yeah,
I mean it's going to give mesome sort of continuation.
It has a record of those pastconversations and so at some
point maybe not in 2025, but atsome point absolutely it's going
to have a history of thosethoughts and in a lot of ways,
(08:07):
depending upon how frequent I'mtalking to it, it might have
more information about what I'mthinking than my actual human
friend.
That is possible.
So you have that privacy, youhave that history of you, but
the knowledge of the world thesechatbots can tap into a vast
pool of information in seconds.
(08:27):
In seconds, with my friend, Ican ask them a question hey,
what do you think I should doabout this particular scenario?
They can give me an answer, butit might be hard to ask my
friend a question about quantumcomputing.
I'm curious about this physics.
I'm curious about that.
Quantum computing, I'm curiousabout this.
Physics, I'm curious about that.
The history of something, theinformation on just a variety of
(08:48):
different things.
That bot is able to tap intothat vast pool of information
and can do it in seconds Right,it can do it in seconds.
Give me that that answer rightnow.
Right, so it has thatinformation of the world.
And then 24-7 availability thatbot will always.
It's always there, whether it's3 am and you can't sleep and
(09:11):
you need a thought partner, orduring a lunch break Right, you
can always talk to it.
So, privacy, history,Understanding, knowledge,
information availability,imagery, understanding,
knowledge, informationavailability these start to
become some of the benefits ofan AI bot in terms of being a
(09:32):
kind of a companion and really,really kind of playing the role
of a thought partner.
I mean, think beyond basictasks, like write me a paper and
really think about stuff, likelike hey, give me some
recommendation on how to handlethis problem that I'm having.
Give me some recommendationsaround what I might cook for
(09:54):
dinner with these ingredients.
You understand what I wasstruggling with three weeks ago
as it relates to my business.
What are some other avenues Ican take?
What are some other avenues orsome other options that others
are taking with my similarproblem.
Right, these are questions thatyou can start asking these bots.
(10:17):
You can ask them those thingsnow and again in a very natural
conversational way, the same wayI'm talking on this podcast
right now.
It can absolutely brainstormwith you, refine ideas, offer
multiple perspectives.
Right, and sometimes that botmight not be qualified, in your
mind, to answer some of thesequestions, especially personal
(10:39):
questions what should I do?
Dating advice?
What should I do about dealingwith my boss or dealing with
these kids, or any of thesequestions that folks might have.
You might think, well, thatbot's not qualified to answer
that, and you might be right.
You might be right.
But then I ask you to askyourself, well, are your human
(10:59):
friends qualified?
Are they always qualified?
Maybe, maybe not.
I mean, we got a lot of badfriend advice that's going on
out here in the world, so everypiece of advice we get from
every friend isn't always rightanyway.
Anyway, right.
So you have these bots thatcould serve again as the role of
(11:20):
a thought partner and kind ofeven act as a teacher for new
concepts and skills.
Matter of fact, I've been kindof having this bug.
To get back into physics.
I took a little bit in highschool, a little bit of college.
I've really forgotten almosteverything I even remembered
back then.
So I want to kind of get backin physics, even asking those
(11:44):
questions again not my friend.
Ask the bot, hey bot, whateveryou want to call it, you can
even give the bots a namenowadays.
So hey I, I don't reallyremember much physics.
I would like to kind of refreshmy memory and just really learn
some new stuff as it relates tophysics, but I have nowhere to
start.
Tell me memory and just reallylearn some new stuff as it
relates to physics, but I havenowhere to start.
Tell me where I should startand you already know my
(12:06):
lifestyle, you know the thingsI'm working on, you know how I'm
spending my time.
But give me some advice on whatI should start with, trying to
get back into physics.
Give me a recommendation, ask me, do I want to refine that?
Ask me, you know, do I prefervideo versus text versus audio?
Do I prefer hands-on activities?
(12:27):
Maybe, so, maybe not.
I mean, I can just talk to itlike I'll be talking to a
personal physics tutor.
That's a different level ofcompanionship, I guess you can
say, as opposed to a traditionalfriend.
I can absolutely go to the botwith different questions,
(12:49):
different inquiries than I couldwith just a friend.
So, in closing, I'm notadvocating, I'm not advocating
for bots to replace true humanfriendship.
I understand that humansabsolutely can show up,
emotionally and physically, inways that robots can never show
up.
I get that.
(13:09):
So this is not an episode topromote, to toss all your
friends out to the wind andsimply converse with chat, gpt
and others.
Right, I'm not suggesting that.
But.
But what I am suggesting isthat robots, chatbots, llms can
actually show up in ways thathumans never can show up 24,
(13:31):
seven information on the world,right, even privacy, to that
matter.
Right, they have a tirelessability to support, with
constant availability and, intheory, endless knowledge.
They can show up in ways thathumans cannot and those are ways
(13:52):
that we can absolutely starttaking advantage of, right?
This emerging type ofrelationship is new, but it can
accelerate our productivity andthe way that we go about problem
solving in ways.
That, again, has only justbegun and I can only imagine
where it's going to go and leadus to.
Next year and in the followingyears a new type of relationship
(14:13):
will form.
Hopefully, people don't abuseit.
Hopefully people don't becomeobsessed with it.
That's a big if right.
We did that with social media,unfortunately, so hopefully
people aren't become obsessedwith it.
That's a big if right.
We did that with social media,unfortunately.
So hopefully people aren'tspending their entire lives
talking to what is essentiallystill going to be computer
programming.
But for those of us that havethe wherewithal to keep things
(14:36):
in perspective, this is a newtype of relationship that you
can grow, that can be of truebenefit for you right now and
definitely in the future,definitely in the future.
So this is the ScratchworkPodcast, where we don't fear the
future.
We create it.
One thought, one idea, onedream at a time.
(14:59):
Thank you.
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