I’m the co-host and lead producer of Bot Love, a limited podcast series that explores the relationships that many people have formed with AI-driven chatbots. Bot Love was the product of over two years of research and reporting, and was released in 2023 in collaboration with Radiotopia Presents.
Bot Love was featured by The Atlantic as the eighth-best podcast of 2023, and described by The New York Times as "a thought-provoking and compassionate meditation on some uneasy questions.”
Other press:
“Bot Love . . . makes tangible the very common and human emotions driving these interactions: a sense of loneliness, a want of being heard, a hunger for stable companionship — all things that drive human beings to other people, many of whom aren’t actually good providers of these needs. It’s a cliché to say this, but Bot Love really does the thing you’d want any decent story about AI to do, which is provoke questions about certain fundamental aspects of the human experience.” - Vulture.
“Bot Love is intriguing and suspenseful, as the topic it tackles can be both fascinating and creepy. It also highlights the comfort provided by AI relationships, and questions whether we are using in a healthy way.” - New Scientist.
“Put it in the archives to document our struggles to connect in a digital world and the way we use technology to feel loved.” - Lauren Passell, Podcast The Newsletter.
“Bot Love explores the emotional connections formed between people and artificial intelligence as a kind of modern romance with flavors of Don DeLillo and Margaret Atwood.” - Podcast Review.
Speaking at On Air Fest, February 2023.
I’ve also spoken on podcasts and at live events about my work on Bot Love:
“What does it mean to bond with a bot?” - Unhinged Collaboration
“When Bots Become Our Friends” - Humans vs. Machines with Gary Marcus
“Does the Internet Suck?” - Adult ISH
“AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them” - Science, Quickly (Scientific American)
Live Taping, February 24, 2023 - On Air Fest
Collecting field tape in Tennessee.
