Essays and analysis on AI companions — the history, the open questions, and practical guides.
Dispatches · Part 7
Market-size figures for AI companions range more than twentyfold for the same year. The gap isn't data — it's definition. A short guide to reading these numbers honestly.
Dispatches · Part 6
In about eighteen months, AI-companion rules went from nonexistent to a national patchwork. A map of what's converging — and why the patchwork itself is reshaping the market.
Dispatches · Part 5
Garcia v. Character Technologies, the first wrongful-death suit against an AI company, ended in a settlement, not a verdict. What that resolves, and the much larger question it leaves open.
Dispatches · Part 4
Pennsylvania's suit against Character.AI opens a new regulatory flank: not companion-safety law, but the medical-licensing law that makes 'what your companion claims to be' a legal liability.
Dispatches · Part 3
While Replika repositions around wellbeing and OpenAI pauses intimacy, xAI's Grok sprints the other way — gamified affection, NSFW unlocks, a 12+ rating. The category is splitting on a values question.
Dispatches · Part 2
OpenAI promised verified-adult intimacy in ChatGPT, then paused it indefinitely. The two reasons it stalled are the exact problems the AI companion category has never solved.
What do AI companions actually cost? A clear guide to AI companion pricing — the going rates, the free-tier trap, the lifetime gamble, and how to avoid overpaying.
Are AI companions safe? The honest answer depends on your age, how much you use one, what you share, and which app. A clear, evidence-based guide for 2026.
Looking for a Replika alternative in 2026? A clear, honest guide to Nomi, Kindroid, Character.AI and the rest — matched to what actually made you want to leave.
The Open Questions · Part 4
AI companions can genuinely reduce loneliness — and the business model that funds them rewards the opposite. The defining open question of the category, examined.
The Companion Files · Part 2
The barrier that held AI companions back for 50 years fell in months. How ChatGPT, Character.AI, and a cheap API set off the gold rush.
Dispatches · Part 1
Replika is repositioning around 'flourishing in real life' — telling users the right AI doesn't keep you in. A business analysis of what that bet does to retention, attachment, and trust.
A clear, honest head-to-head of Replika vs Character.AI vs Nomi in 2026 — memory, voice, safety, privacy and price — to match the right companion to what you actually want.
The Companion Files · Part 1
How AI companions actually began — from ELIZA in 1966 to Microsoft's Xiaoice and Replika — and why the same human instinct drove all of them.
The Companion Files · Part 3
In February 2023, an order from Italy made Replika change what its companion was allowed to be — overnight. The backlash reshaped the entire market.
The Open Questions · Part 2
AI companions hold the most intimate data people produce. Here's what AI companion privacy actually looks like — what's collected, what's shared, and what trains the model.
The Open Questions · Part 3
In a few months, AI companions went from unregulated to legally accountable. What California's SB 243 and New York's law require — and what responsible design really means.
The Open Questions · Part 1
Memory is the axis users fixate on most. Here's how AI companion memory actually works, why continuity feels like a relationship, and why it's so hard to get right.
The Companion Files · Part 4
An honest map of where AI companions are in 2026 — Replika, Character.AI, Grok, Nomi and the rest: who is building what, the choices that separate them, and the forces reshaping the whole category.