The Friend Machine: On the Trail of AI Companionship

In Friend Machine: On The Trail of AI Companionship, journalist and author Victoria Hetherington explores the rapidly expanding world of AI companions, systems designed not just to assist us, but to know us, comfort us, and keep us company.Drawing on original reporting, cultural analysis, and deeply human stories, Hetherington investigates how people are forming real emotional bonds with chatbots. From griefbots that simulate lost loved ones to AI partners that offer intimacy without friction, these technologies are reshaping how we connect, and what we expect from one another. But beneath the promise of connection lies something more complicated.Who builds these systems, and what do they want from us? What happens when intimacy is engineered, optimized, and endlessly available? And what does it do to our relationships with real people when something artificial begins to feel more responsive, more understanding, more there?  Clear-eyed, provocative, and deeply humane, *Friend Machine* sits at the intersection of technology, psychology, and culture. It asks not just what AI can do, but what it's already doing to us.Victoria Hetherington is a journalist, broadcaster, and author exploring technology, intimacy, and what it means to be human in an AI-driven world. She is the the author of five books, including Friend Machine, which inspired CBC's eigth season of 'Understood: Artificial Intimacy.' Read more