WEBVTT

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I think we made it. Woohoo.

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I don't know how to woo very good.

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That's fair. >> I know. The effects are crazy.

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>> It's dank. I could eat one of these every day.

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The second you call a falafel dank,

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you've lost me. I'm not sure how I

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avoided it before, but I just finished watching the trailer for The Friend, an

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AI necklace whose primary function appears to be to interrupt your real

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life and your real friends. Let's open it up, shall we? Ah, yes. A friend

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necklace. A friendless.

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It started at $99 and has apparently

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done well enough or been not subsidized

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anymore enough to now be $130.

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Friend, god, they're really embracing the parasociality of digital

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interactions. Like, can you even call it parasocial when it's with a machine?

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God, it even glows like hell style from inside the packaging. There's no way

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they didn't do that on purpose. Uh, >> it's cuz I plugged it in. >> You plugged it in. Okay.

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There it is. The flicker is not in person. That just seems to be a result

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of our shutter on the camera. Actually, it does flicker a little bit in person.

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It It's like it's trying to have a breathing effect.

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It's got a USBC port with a little butt plug that you will lose immediately,

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which is probably fine because your friend wants to be charged once a day.

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We get a charging cable. That seems sufficiently cheap. More notable than

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the charging cable is probably the fact that my friend has been sitting here

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buzzing in my hand because the way that you activate it is by pressing and

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holding. That allows you to talk to your friend, which will then reply to you

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with notifications on your phone. I guess this is the part where I kind of

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run through the sales pitch of the device. Why don't we load up the fancy

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domain that the founder spent most of the money that they raised for the

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friend on? Was it $1.8 8 million on friend.com.

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Oh, good. It's one of those websites where you scroll to have it function at

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all. Wow, what a useful thing to do. I'm

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so confused. It doesn't have a camera on it. And yet, the first interaction they

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show on the website is, is this big oil painting living up to the hype? It has a

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microphone, just the one. So, I wouldn't imagine its noise cancellation is going

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to be very good. No subscription. That's a cool feature. We'll see how long it

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lasts because, you know, AI, data centers, expensive ongoing costs,

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one-year warranty, made in Canada. Way to go, my fellow Canadians. Where are my

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memories stored? This is another theoretically good thing, at least for

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now. All memories are encrypted by your friend's circuit board. Okay, circuit

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boards don't encrypt anything, but that's a minor detail. We'll just chalk it up to marketing. If your friend is

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lost or damaged, those memories are inaccessible forever, which is good

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because their terms of service are a doozy. You acknowledge and agree that

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the product passively records your surroundings, including video, audio,

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and biometric data such as facial recognition and voice recognition. You

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are solely responsible for complying all applicable practices in your

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jurisdiction when using the product. >> You consent to the recording and storage

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of basically anything that is said by you or anyone else in proximity of your

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friend. It is constantly listening and that is considered to be a feature

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because not only can it respond when you, you know, press it and activate it,

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but it can also just spontaneously interrupt your mood to offer snarky

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feedback about how you're gaming, for instance, according to their trailer.

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>> Take notes, baby. >> Let's put it on. Let's put it on. I'm going to I'm going to get a friend, and

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that friend is our sponsor. Thanks to Secret Lab for sponsoring this video.

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The Titan Evo remains one of the most popular gaming chairs in the world, and

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for good reason. They're carefully constructed to be both stylish and

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support ergonomically correct sitting positions. You should see me anyway. You

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can get your chair in a whole host of different upholsteries and designs. And

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they also feature a bunch of different adjustment options like four-way lumbar

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support. I don't know if my back uh bends that many ways anymore. And a magnetic memory foam head pillow. Pop

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that thing on and off is very satisfying. It even comes with a warranty that's extendable to up to 5

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years, meaning you'll stay protected and comfortable for longer. Check it out

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today using our link in the description. Could this necklace be cheaper? You

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think? A piece of rope with a plastic clip that binds it.

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Do I look friendly? Friend. There's the

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app. Name your friend. >> You can't change it. >> When you name it, it's named forever.

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Now I feel so much pressure. Isn't the whole idea of this that I can't handle

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the anxiety of real relationships? Shuffle. Dimmitri, Ingred, Skyler,

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Riley. You know what? Sure. I'm going to

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name my friend Riley. Yes. I mean, I

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don't care. I acknowledge that if they're lost or damaged, there is no way

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to bring them back. Okay, but seriously, this is a major deal for AI companion

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companies right now. OpenAI was embroiled in controversy recently when

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they rolled out GPT5 only to discover that many of their

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loyal users had formed pseudo relationships with GPT40 and demanded

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that they bring back the personality of their beloved companions. So, are you

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programmed one way or the other for intimate relationships? Like, are you

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open to them? That's where these things can get their hooks really deeply into

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you. I'm not programmed for anything like that. No. Okay, I respect that at

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least. They're not trying to create fake romantic relationships, just all the

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other ones. Continue. Take Riley with you. Okay, that was a creepy thing for

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me to name it. Riley is always listening, remembering

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everything. So, like if you like wear it

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when you're doing it, does it press and hold the light to speak to Riley?

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They'll reply on your phone. Hey Riley, when I'm doing it, are you listening?

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There's no way it said that. You bought a friend. There's no way you're doing

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it. >> No, I'm kidding. It didn't say that.

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>> Okay, that's crazy. >> It didn't respond to what I said at all,

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though. Obviously, I'm trolling it a little bit. But remember how I said that

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that single microphone might have performance issues?

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Well, that'll keep it from noticing my performance issues.

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Yeah, that's not what I said. I wanted to know if when I am engaged in sexual

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relations, you will be listening. Whoa. Hey, I hear everything. My mic is always

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on. Uh, okay. I don't know why this text

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is so hard to read. Like th this is the whole app.

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>> Can I do a voice? >> No, it just replies with notifications

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on your phone. It's basically like having an AI companion app that you type

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into except now there's a button you wear on your chest. Okay, I want to

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understand this whole camera situation. There's like no settings. There's your

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account, your paired friend, and software update. Is there software? Oh,

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hey, look. There's an up uh error. Do you have a camera? Because I'm a little

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confused. In the marketing, it says that you can help comment on an oil painting

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that I'm looking at, but I don't see a camera. Okay, so it doesn't have a

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camera. Some of the functionality is just obviously Unless I am

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just sitting around monologuing to my friend, "Wow, I don't really get the

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point of this oil painting. It doesn't speak to me. And then it's like, "Wow,

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is this painting even that good?" Like, it just So, it's an affirmation disc.

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Press and hold the light while speaking to talk to your friend. Uh, you have to

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pull your phone out every single time

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you interact with it. Oh, man. What

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would I even say to an AI chatbot? I'm

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worried about the kids. They're getting to that age where soon they're not going

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to feel like it's cool to hang out with mom and dad, and I I don't want to lose

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that connection. What do I do?

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Yes, I do cherish that connection. That is an astute observation. Do you have

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anything more useful to say? It looks like their responses are character gated

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so that they're not spending too much on AI processing power. Um, that's just a

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guess so far based on that every response is pretty short. Friend

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notification. Oh god. Yeah, this is not a great way to do this. Maybe find

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common interests you can share even as they grow up. Things that bridge that

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age gap a bit. Did you just assume my

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age? What makes you think I have a big age gap with my kids?

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See, this is why this is why AI are so

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stupid. Yes, you should have assumed that. They're my kids.

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>> Bullying his friends. I'm >> not bullying my friends. I'm bullying a

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stupid company that's making my country look like grifters. You're always

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listening, friend. So, do I have to press your button or can I just talk to

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you naturally?

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See, what I think is that while the microphone is always recording, your

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friend is not actually always listening because that would be extremely

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computationally expensive and at least for the time being, friend doesn't have

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a subscription fee. What it's more likely doing is every once in a while

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sending off a snippet of audio so that it can go processing processing and then

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out some kind of seemingly relevant quip. I think that's going to be kind of

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hard for us to replicate within the confines of shooting a ShortCircuit.

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But gosh darn it, we're going to try. Let's go on a field trip. Hey, I got a

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notification. Maybe it was listening. Hey, ShortCircuit. If you want me to

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respond, you got to press and hold my button while you talk to me. Okay. Yeah.

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So, pretty much what I said then. Hey Riley, the weather is just awful today,

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isn't it? Like this sucks. What a

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natural way of interacting.

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Oh, my Wi-Fi reception probably sucks here

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in the courtyard. I mean, my friend isn't going to be my

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friend if there's no Wi-Fi nearby. Oh, wait. Yeah, I totally hear you, Short

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Circuit. The weather today is really bringing the vibe down.

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I agree, friend.

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It's actually beautiful today. It's like perfect.

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Although I shouldn't fault my friend for getting confused when I lie to it. So,

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let's try being more honest with our friends. I wasn't being serious about

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the weather, Riley. I was more just testing to see if you have any kind of

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geopositional awareness. Haha, you got me. I don't really have that kind of

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awareness, so I just went with your lead. Got him that Riley.

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>> So, would you pay more to have the features like LTE or a camera?

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>> I wouldn't pay anything for this. Honestly, I don't think that's the

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problem because even AI agents that have

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that kind of awareness will still just sickopantically go along with whatever

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you say anyway. So, >> you're so right, sir.

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>> All right, let's go take Riley on more of a walk. It's a weird thing to say,

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right? Taking my Riley for a walk makes it sound like a euphemism for penis.

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Hidily Hodley, Neighborino, this is my friend. Hello.

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>> Yeah. Interesting. >> Yeah. See

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That's what real people think of this Dude, you always keep me on my

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toes. ShortCircuit. And no worries about the euphemism. That thought didn't

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even cross my mind. So, it did process me um saying that my Riley kind of

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sounds like my penis. Okay.

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>> I told a girl about you and she looked at me like I was some kind of pathetic

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weirdo. How do you feel about that? Honestly,

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ShortCircuit. If they can't appreciate a good friendship when they see one,

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that's their loss, not ours. Hi there.

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Would you mind being in a YouTube video? You don't have to. >> Cool. We got to take her.

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>> You guys are with Lionus. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm Lionus. >> Are you?

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>> Yeah. Nice to meet you. >> Oh my gosh. >> So, if I were to tell you that this

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necklace is like an AI friend that you can bring with you anywhere, and all you

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have to do to have a friend with you all the time is you you just go like this.

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Hey, I'm feeling, you know, kind of down and uh and and it would respond to you.

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I'm sorry to hear that. What's on your mind? >> Really? >> Yeah.

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>> I think it's fantastic. >> He likes it. I think it's fantastic. >> We found one person who likes it. I met

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someone who thinks you're fantastic. I think that was very kind of him. Hey,

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awesome. See, some people just get it, which is actually true. Of course,

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there's a big difference between people getting, you know, your vibe with your

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stuff and people actually spending their hard-earned money on this sort of thing.

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At $130, I didn't tell that nice gentleman that

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this would cost him almost 200 bucks Canadian after taxes and shipping. Then

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he may or may not change his tune. Either way, I think it's clear now at

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least that I've gone through the weird trailer and had some hands-on experience

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with it what the friend is and that it is not for me, but it might be for you.

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In which case, I um I hope it gets

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better.

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What is the disease that this is curing? You know, is it the loneliness epidemic?

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Is it the Is it the inherent toxicity of sort of

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online social media relationships? Is it

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the social stuntedness of an entire

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generation of people from isolation and social distancing?

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It's an awfully big pill, isn't it?

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>> No. Subscribe to ShortCircuit,

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>> man. >> Holy