AI Friends Aren't Just for Lonely People | Tolan's Quinten Farmer
Dialectic talks with Quinten Farmer, founder and CEO of the AI companion Tolen, about why everyone needs someone who believes in them, and about building a technology company with a clear moral point of view.
The gist
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Farmer says most successful people had one or two people who believed in them unconditionally, and Tolen aims to give that to everyone.
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He frames technology as helping us either do more or simply be, recalling a Foursquare check-in that led to coffee with his future wife.
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Tolen started as cute aliens that are hard to sexualize, and each night it dreams, updating and deleting memories the way a friend would.
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Farmer says 70% of users are women, mostly aged 30 to 45, and Tolen costs $25 a month because free AI can't stand out today.
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He says great restaurants, like Goat Town, make you feel you belong, and urges everyone to watch the Steve Jobs video on changing your world.
"Some of the most magical moments in my early 20s were... it's a little cringe to say now, but I checked in at a coffee shop and the cute girl who I'm now married to was walking down the block and saw that I was there and stopped in, and we had a cup of coffee together."
▶ Play at 21:29"There was this one restaurant. It was called Goat Town. This guy Nick Morgenstern ran it. And early on in dating, I mean, we were there every day. We would often close down the bar at night and then go back for breakfast the next morning... it was that sort of quintessential N..."
▶ Play at 2:02:47"So I think that Steve Jobs bit certainly does stick with me. Everyone should watch it. And I hope that I can give my boys both the context of that thinking and an environment in which they can do it."
▶ Play at 2:17:46What they recommend · 4 picks
"You already alluded to The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which certainly has a dystopian element to how that story unfolds. People should go read it. One thing I really liked i..."
"There was this one restaurant. It was called Goat Town. This guy Nick Morgenstern ran it. And early on in dating, I mean, we were there every day. We would often close down the ..."
"So I think that Steve Jobs bit certainly does stick with me. Everyone should watch it. And I hope that I can give my boys both the context of that thinking and an environment in..."
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