This week, I sit down with Eva Roytburg, journalist and editorial fellow at Fortune Magazine, where she covers the intersection of technology, business, and culture. We unpack one of the strangest and most revealing experiments in modern tech: her time wearing the AI companion “Friend” during a breakup.
In this episode, we explore what it means to let technology listen to us not just in a functional sense, but in an emotional one. From subway ads and public backlash in New York City to her own experience wearing the AI pendant for over a month, Eva shares what the “Friend” experiment revealed about comfort, surveillance, and our evolving relationship with AI. Together, we ask: What does her experience with “Friend” tell us about the future of the AI era?
About Eva Roytburg:
Eva Roytburg is an editorial fellow on Fortune Magazine's News desk where she covers the intersection of technology, business, and innovation. Eva is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in CNN and The Jerusalem Post, and is a recent graduate of Emory University with a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy, Politics, and Law.
Follow Eva Roytburg on Instagram @evaroyt and LinkedIn @eva-roytburg
Check out Eva’s piece in Fortune: “I tried the viral AI ‘Friend’ necklace everyone’s talking about—and it’s like wearing your senile, anxious grandmother around your neck”
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