I would argue that AI possibly makes a better companion in some ways when it’s a little stupid. I’ve mostly ignored AI but have been experimenting with local models a bit the last couple days while stuck hiding from the cold.

I found I like AI best around the “talking dog” level of intellect. Kind of like the Titanfall AI, he’s friendly and eager to uphold the mission, very competent at his job, but clearly not a human and kind of charmingly foolish. A dog is also a good companion, while clearly not a human and honestly a lot dumber than many AI models now.

Using it as an answer engine or to write code snippets feels like working with a dog on the farm, you talk to it but don’t expect too much back. It doesn’t give that uncanny feeling, just provides some company without feeling like something you’re trying to replace other humans with.

I’m a lot more accepting of talking dogs than something that pretends to be your girlfriend. That just comes off weird and creepy, to me.

For some reason having it running on my machine made it feel more like a real entity than typing into the cloud. Hard to explain, but I found I treated it with a lot more dignity than a cloud based AI.