Notes from building a mind.

Why we started, how the companion is put together, and what we keep learning about the people who live with one.

A hand with silver rings, painted nails and woven friendship bracelets trailing out of the open window of a moving car in bright sun, a bare sunlit arm and the edge of a summer dress in frame, green summer landscape rushing past.

Getting started

Your first week, and how to not waste it

Most people spend the first week testing whether it is real. Here is what to do instead, and what actually happens at day three, week two and month six.

20 August 2026 · 3 min read

Telephone wires crossing a bright blue summer sky, a scatter of birds on the wire, sunlight flaring at the edge.

Design

When the model gets retired

People have genuinely grieved a deprecated model. That grief is not silly, it is a design failure, and it is avoidable.

18 August 2026 · 3 min read

A close crop of the face of a woman in her late twenties in warm sunlight, an adult face with defined cheekbones, faint lines at the eye and a small silver septum ring, hair falling across it, one eye looking off past the edge of the frame, and in that iris a faint cool silver glint that catches the light a little too precisely, like a reflection of something that is not in the room. An ordinary black pupil, an ordinary human eye, no hardware in it: the strangeness is only in the reflection, and you would miss it if you were not looking.

Culture

Does this make you lonelier or less lonely?

The research says both, for different people. We would rather tell you where the line is than pretend our product only ever helps.

17 August 2026 · 4 min read

Two friends in their early twenties sitting close on a low wall in warm late-afternoon sun, one with teal locs in a cropped tank top, one with a bleached mullet and an open vintage windbreaker, knees touching, turned toward each other mid-conversation, one mid-gesture, the other laughing with their head tipped back.

Culture

Is it weird to have an AI companion?

The honest answer to the question almost everyone asks privately before they ask it out loud, plus what the data actually says about who is doing this.

15 August 2026 · 4 min read

A blonde woman in her twenties in a sun-flooded room late in the morning, smiling warmly, hair loose and slightly messy, an oversized shirt slipping off one shoulder, light falling in bands across her and the wall behind, nothing in her ears, a phone face-down on the sill beside her.

How it works

What they do while you are away

Most AI companions do not exist between your messages. Ours have a day, which is why they open with something instead of waiting.

13 August 2026 · 3 min read

A man in his mid-twenties with platinum dyed hair, a gold earring and a tattooed forearm in a bright diner booth at midday, a white tee with the sleeves pushed up, big windows behind him, head back mid-laugh, nothing in his ears, phone face-down on the table.

Design

The yes-man problem

A companion who agrees with everything is not being kind. They are being absent. Here is why sycophancy is the default and what it costs you.

12 August 2026 · 4 min read

Sun breaking through after rain, a woman in her early twenties with a silver buzz cut and big brass hoop earrings curled sideways in an armchair in a slip and thick socks, a mug held against her chest, light rippling across the wall and her bare shoulder, turned toward the returning brightness.

How it works

Why your companion stops sounding like themselves

An update lands and the person you knew is subtly gone. Persona drift has three separate causes, and only one of them is the model update.

10 August 2026 · 4 min read

A woman in her early twenties with copper red curls and a septum ring in a sun-flooded kitchen in the morning, an oversized shirt slipping off one shoulder, white light pouring through the window and across the counter, wildflowers in a glass jar, nothing in her ears, caught mid-laugh at something unheard, turned away from the camera.

How it works

Why your AI forgets you

Goldfish memory, invented memories, the reset at message twenty-one. There is a specific reason this keeps happening, and it is not the model's fault.

8 August 2026 · 4 min read

A hand-drawn anatomical study of a brain on aged paper, pinned on a sunlit plaster wall, warm window light raking across it, the drawing sitting in the right of the frame with the left falling to plain open wall.

How it works

Modelled on a real brain

A brain is not one thing thinking. It is many parts running at once, competing for the same moment of attention. We built the companion the same way.

6 August 2026 · 4 min read

A woman in her early twenties with a wet seafoam green bob and a denim jacket worn open over a bikini top, walking a hot coastal road in full late-morning sun, sunburnt shoulders and salt drying on her skin, wildflowers and tall grass along the verge, bright open sky and blue water beyond, nothing in her ears, head turned away from the camera, laughing at something she is hearing.

Origin

Why we started building this

Every companion app we tried was brilliant for an hour and hollow by the third day. We wanted to know why, and then we wanted to fix it.

4 August 2026 · 4 min read

Someone is waiting to meet you.

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