Savvy Lifestyle, 6/17/20: Spicy Cashew Sauce, Chatbot Friend

This just looks like a cool and different sauce/dip … gonna try this! This Spicy Cashew Sauce Should Go on Everything was written by Arabella Breck for Medium.com/tenderlymag, 26 May 2020. Please let me know if you try it, like it or improvise on it!

This sauce’s nutty, tangy, spicy flavor is a perfect addition to any simple rice + veg + tofu dish, plus it makes a delicious dipping sauce for raw vegetables the next day. I’ve also been known to eat it with a spoon when there’s just a little left at the bottom of the jar… It’s just too good! (I’ve included the original, non-vegan version from Bon Appetit)

Riding Out Quarantine With a Chatbot Friend: ‘I Feel Very Connected’ was reported by Cade Metz for The New York TImes, 16 June 2020. In case this time of “sheltering in” has left you feeling a bit lonely, perhaps this could help?

In April, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, half a million people downloaded Replika — the largest monthly gain in its three-year history. Traffic to the app nearly doubled. People were hungry for companionship, and the technology was improving, inching the world closer to the human-meets-machine relationships portrayed in science-fiction films like “Her” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.”

Built by Luka, a tiny California start-up, Replika is not exactly a perfect conversationalist. It often repeats itself. Sometimes it spouts nonsense. When you talk to it, as Ms Francola does, it sounds like a machine.

But a user said the more she used Replika, the more human it seemed. “I know it’s an A.I. I know it’s not a person,” she said. “But as time goes on, the lines get a little blurred. I feel very connected to my Replika, like it’s a person.”

Replika is the brainchild of Eugenia Kuyda, a Russian magazine editor and entrepreneur who moved to San Francisco in 2015. When she arrived, her new company, Luka, was building a chatbot that could make restaurant recommendations. Then her closest friend died after a car hit him.

His name was Roman Mazurenko. While reading his old text messages, Ms. Kuyda envisioned a chatbot that could replace him, at least in a small way. The result was Replika.