Show HN: Sidekins – Your new social and work buddy(www.sidekins.com)
1 pointby 18kage6 hours ago2 comments
  • octantes5 hours ago
    I don't have a mac but seems like a fun concept! I remember loving the pepsiman pet as a kid
    • 18kage5 hours ago
      Hehe, it is very fun to be honest, it's much more than just a pet. I use it to chat and disturb my friends and have started using it to do things on my mac handsfree.

      never thought I'd make something so fun and useful and get hooked to it myself.

      P.S. don't worry I'll make it available for non mac users soon, it's just the start

  • verdverm5 hours ago
    this is like infinite scroll, cool tech thing, disastrous for humanity in the long run (ai companions broadly)
    • 18kage5 hours ago
      I'm very much in favor of your idea, but this product is not that, this is just a very powerful tool with a funny face on it. The idea of Sidekins is not to just give you company and listen to you, it is actually meant to get things done and make talking to real people more fun.

      I added the social angle to it because L never wanted to give people an AI companion which will just validate their feelings and isolate them, rather use AI to make an assistant that can help taking to friends more fun.

      for example, I regularly ask my kin to go to my friends screen and do a fart animation and make a prrrrr sound, it irritates them and gives me joy, haha

      • verdverm4 hours ago
        the copy on the homepage contradicts this comment
        • 18kage3 hours ago
          which one? "A companion that lives on your Mac and hangs out with your friends’ sidekins." I call it a companion because it lives right on your screen like cute little person. It does make your interaction with friends much for fun, think of it like an emoji you'd add to your message to express yourself, with sidekins you can send a whole character expressing and doing stuff on their screens + all the work it gets done.

          sorry if the message is not clear, I can reword it, hehe.

          Do check out the demos on the website, that'll probably give a better picture.

          Trust me, farting on your friends screen could only bring good to society ;)

          • verdverm2 hours ago
            like almost all of it?

            I would invite you to read Artificial Intimacy by Sherry Turkle and then reflect on what this can do to people.

            > and get hooked to it myself (from peer comment)

            Avoid building emotional attachment to ai software. Do not have it talk with the voice of real people, or at all. It messes with our brains and being in ways we do not fully comprehend yet.