By 2026, Your Best Friend Might Be an Algorithm

Ark Invest defines AI companions as:

A method of entertainment and socialization involving direct consumer interaction with virtual characters powered by generative AI.

\ Essentially, it’s artificial intelligence designed to interact with users through text or voice, sometimes accompanied by a visual component. I believe that audio-focused companions will dominate for years, with certain extensions allowing them to animate and integrate into metaverse-like applications.

\ Personally, I already use an AI companion to think through ideas. ChatGPT’s voice chat is incredibly powerful and has improved significantly since its recent update earlier this year, which humanized its voice and responses, making them sound more natural. OpenAI’s voice models are impressively convincing. You simply enter the app, activate voice chat, and a colorful circle with granular shifting gradients — likely simulating a breath — appears as the interface. From there, you can ask it to do almost anything: recite obscure historical facts, compose an original poem, collaborate on storytelling, and more.

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\ Sometimes, I find myself sharing my creative work with the AI — explaining what I want to achieve — and it helps organize my ideas. It even compares my concepts to those of great philosophers and intellectuals, pointing out similarities, differences, and recommending relevant books or films. I can engage in real-time conversations about its suggestions.

\ It’s an experience unlike any other. For someone like me, whose mind races with ideas, the voice chat feature is invaluable. It provides instant feedback, especially when I process my thoughts better through speaking or writing. While I use it mainly for philosophy and tech research, it has enormous potential for other purposes: cooking, relationship advice, travel planning, and more.

I predict that within the next two years — possibly sooner — major players like Apple will step in. With its new Apple Intelligence platform and collaboration with OpenAI, Siri could evolve into a powerful AI companion. These assistants will likely be affordable, highly accessible, and extremely capable.

\ I’m curious to see how widespread adoption will be. While developed nations quickly embraced smartphones, AI companions may follow a similar trajectory, eventually becoming ubiquitous worldwide with staggered global adoption.

\ I can see it now: a commercial depicts a kid in a foreign city who misses his train. His smart glasses display the next bus routes, translating foreign text and giving him directions via his earphones. Whether he uses Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses or his phone’s camera, his AI companion helps him navigate seamlessly to his destination. Or perhaps the commercial shows a mother baking. Just before she adds an extra cup of flour, her AI reminds her that the recipe calls for only two cups — ensuring her cake turns out perfect.

\ Athletes could use AI companions for workout insights, reminders to beat yesterday’s records, or personalized motivational speeches designed to resonate with their mindset.

\ By 2025 at the earliest — 2026 at the latest — companies like Apple and Samsung will likely introduce streamlined platforms for AI companions. With just a tap of a button, users will connect to their AI assistants, seamlessly integrated into their devices.

Wearable technologies, like AI glasses from Meta, will likely allow users to record everything they see. Similar to Black Mirror’s episode “The Entire History of You”, people will be able to replay their daily activities, recall prices they saw in passing, the many ingredients in foods, license plates, or even a face of a stranger.

\ However, this may be a bit slow to mainstream adoption. First, the concept of replacing human memory with AI recordings is just weird. Second, legislation will need to address privacy and the implications of “always recording” societies.

One of my biggest concerns is the potential for widening class divides. I’ve coined the term “soft augmentation” to describe how software adoption enhances one’s ability to process and interact with the world. Those who can afford AI companions will likely gain significant advantages over those who cannot — or those who refuse to adopt the technology.

\ This disparity could mirror themes from films like Surrogates (2009), where wealthier individuals use robotic avatars while poorer individuals, unable to afford them, are left behind. Similarly, the variations in AI hardware, software, and access could deepen inequalities, raising concerns about fairness and accessibility.

AI will profoundly impact education. Some private schools already integrate AI into their classrooms, but traditional institutions will likely remain hesitant. Colleges, for instance, often use AI detection software to penalize students for using ChatGPT rather than embracing the technology as a learning tool.

\ Schools like Alpha School in Austin, Texas, which employs “guides” instead of teachers and focuses on two-hour academic sessions paired with dynamic activities lead outside the classroom, are leading the way. Their tuition ranges from around $10,000 to $30,000 annually based on what I could find from a a quick Google search.

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For the majority of the 55 million students in the U.S., widespread AI adoption in education seems unlikely — at least in the near future. Many schools will opt for the cheaper, traditional approach, until circumstance forces them to be replaced by solutions crafted by big tech companies.

While I’m bullish on AI companions, i’m concerned about how they might exacerbate class divides and inequality.

These technologies will redefine how we consume, process, and share information, as well as how we prioritize relationships and education.

\ What the future holds? I’m not sure — but one thing is clear: AI companions are coming, and they’ll change the world forever.