An unwelcome megatrend: AI that replaces family, friends — and pets

I’ve already told you about the Dead Internet Theory, the false conspiracy theory that might as well be true. The Dead Internet Theory claims that secret government or corporate conspirators are trying to replace people on the internet with bots and AI to “manipulate public perception, control narratives, and influence the public’s behavior.”

The conspiracy part isn’t true. But the effort to replace people with AI and bots is true. Tech companies are already replacing human content creators with AI-generated books, podcasts, videos, and more. 

Now, I’m here to tell you how companies are seeking to replace communication and interaction with family, friends,and pets with solitary people using AI products. 

Wait, pets? Oh, yeah. 

Here comes Moflin

Casio this week released a robot called Moflin, created by the Japanese startup Vanguard Industries Inc. and now licensed and manufactured by Casio. The palm-sized creature uses AI to develop a unique and evolving “personality.” The “companion” looks like a cross between an owl and a tribble.

The little robot shipped Oct. 1 for $429. (It’s already big in Japan.)

srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?quality=50&strip=all 3560w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=300%2C196&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=768%2C501&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=1024%2C668&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=1536%2C1003&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=2048%2C1337&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=1068%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 1068w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=257%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 257w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=129%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 129w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=735%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 735w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=551%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 551w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Casio-Moflin.png?resize=383%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 383w” width=”1024″ height=”668″ sizes=”auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>Casio’s Moflin robot mimics what it’s like to take care of a pet.
Casio

The Moflin “expresses” many distinct personality traits. If ignored, it becomes passive and timid, and its personality can’t be reset. An app called MofLife shows the product’s “emotional state” and tracks its “personality” evolution.

It can’t walk or roll, but it does have touch sensors on its head, an accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone, and light and temperature sensors. It responds to touch and recognizes its owner’s voice. It has a rechargeable battery that recharges in its “nest.”

Casio says the gadget was designed to feel “natural,” “lovable,” and “alive.” It coos, responds to your presence, and simulates breathing.

The Casio Moflin represents a larger and (in my opinion) horrible trend: AI replacing people and pets in our lives with one-sided “interaction.” 

Here’s what I mean. The Moflin is an advanced AI product designed to simulate sentience and affection. Stroke the gadget on the “head,” and it coos and makes sounds to delude you into believing it enjoys the attention. The Moflin simulates a distinct personality, a necessary condition of human affection. (We love children and pets because they exhibit unique traits.)

But here’s the thing: Our desire to care for pets is wired by evolution and our moral culture. We enjoy caring for those in need, and it’s the right thing to do because people and animals need care.

When caring for a pet, we enjoy petting, talking to, feeding, and protecting it because it benefits from our care. Dogs are the most popular pet because they enjoy and express how much they enjoy our attention. Cats are second in popularity and have the ability to express happiness (by purring, for example).

The Casio Moflin and similar products offer a new idea: We can experience the gratification of caring for a pet — without actually caring for a pet.

Casio is essentially hijacking our natural nurturing instincts to give us our side of the nurturing relationship without any creature receiving it on the other side. It’s like a loving, mutual relationship between a person and an animal. But instead of a connection between two sentient mammals, it leaves us alone holding and petting a product perfectly incapable of participating in the “relationship.” 

This is the megatrend of the century. Consider bitcoin. Backers call it a “currency,” but mostly Bitcoin is used as an investment that wallet-holders can use to make money.

Traditionally, investment meant providing money to capitalize for companies providing goods and services to people. For example, if I invest in an apartment building, I hope to profit from that investment. But I can’t profit unless I provide housing for people who need housing. In fact, it’s almost impossible to buy stock in the stock market without materially supporting the provision of food, housing, transportation or other human needs. 

Bitcoin is fundamentally one-sided. I’m investing and hoping to make a return, and nobody else benefits. When I buy Bitcoin, I’m not feeding, housing, clothing or providing goods or services to anyone. It’s all just for me. I’m investing in nothing and nobody. 

The trend is bigger than Bitcoin and fake pets. It affects even human relations. 

When social media isn’t social anymore

For example, ever since CompuServe, if you’re of a certain age, or MySpace if you’re another, or Snapchat if you’re yet another, people have used social networks to interact with other people. We use social networks to share human experiences like travel or food, and interact with people about culture or politics. 

Silicon Valley wants to replace that, turning person-to-person interactions into person-to-machine interactions, leaving us alone talking to no one. 

OpenAI, for example, has launched an app called “Sora,” powered by its new Sora 2. According to the company, the app enables you to “create, remix each other’s generations, discover new videos in a customizable Sora feed, and bring yourself or your friends in via cameos [which you can use to] drop yourself straight into any Sora scene.”

Sora 2 is a replacement for TikTok where, instead of looking at videos people make to share their actual experiences, users see AI-generated clips up to 10 seconds long — all displayed in a swipeable, personalized feed reminiscent of TikTok’s interface. The feature set includes tools for liking, commenting on, and remixing videos directly within the app. 

TikTok is toxic, but at least it gives each user a glimpse into the lives of other people. With Sora 2, users are simply shown: “here’s what our product made, and here’s another thing our product made.” 

Sora 2 reminds me of SocialAI, an AI-powered social network developed by Friendly Apps and launched in 2024. SocialAI is a “social network” that is neither social nor a network. But like a social network, you can post, build a following, comment on other posts, etc., except there are no other people involved in your interaction. You’re alone on the social network interacting with bots, which are simulating other users. 

Just like Moflin and Bitcoin, you’re supposed to enjoy the experience of interaction, but no other sentient being benefits. It’s just you, all by yourself. 

This use of AI to replace social interactions in a mutually beneficial encounter between actual people with a person “interacting” alone  with a product is the super-trend of our generation. Movies used to be social, where audience reactions were part of a social experience. Now, people replace that experience with solitary movie and TV streaming. Some even prefer to watch “reaction” videos on YouTube, where social watching is simulated.

Video games enable players to simulate a wide range of activities people do with and for other people, such as farming, fishing, and cooking, managing cities, renovating houses, building PCs, and running a business. You get the satisfaction of these activities without benefiting anyone. (There are even games where you pick up trash and clean up an environment instead of going outside and doing it to actually improve the lives of others).

Technology and tech-adjacent companies intend to hijack our inherently civic-minded, social, romantic, and nurturing nature and replace mutual interaction with simulated society, leaving us alone, helping and benefiting nobody but ourselves and those companies.

AI is amazing and can lead to fantastic benefits to humankind. It can transform personal and organizational productivity for the benefit of humankind. It can transform materials science, medicine and engineering for the benefit of humankind. 

While it’s benefiting humankind, it’s also capable of breaking human kinship — if we let it. We need to just say no to companies that want to put the Dead Internet Theory into practice. Microsoft now lets workers bring personal Copilot to work – ComputerworldRead More