Friend.com and the 'AI Necklace' Marketing

Welcome back to The FAIK Files!

In this week's episode:

• OpenAI is feeling the pressure to meet demand, widening the scope of "Stargate" and looking at debt financing for chips by 2025.
• Creepy AI companion toys are posing risks to student mental health, and we look at a family's unsettling week with one.
• Microsoft is bringing Claude to Copilot, diversifying beyond OpenAI, while xAI is suing OpenAI for allegedly poaching talent and secrets.
• An AI safety tool sparked backlash after flagging art as porn and deleting emails, leading to a student lawsuit.

----> Check out Perry and Cameron Malin's "Deepfake Ops" course:  https://maven.com/perception-lab/deepfake-ops

Want to leave us a voicemail? Here's the magic link to do just that: ⁠⁠⁠https://sayhi.chat/FAIK⁠⁠⁠

You can also join our Discord server here: https://faik.to/discord

*** NOTES AND REFERENCES ***

OpenAI’s 10+ Gigawatt Plans:

• OpenAI Feeling the Pressure (Reuters): https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-under-pressure-meet-demand-widens-scope-stargate-eyes-debt-finance-chips-2025-09-24/
• Sam Altman Blog Post: https://archive.is/iPaU9
• OpenAI Partnership with NVIDIA (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2025/09/24/sam-altman-ai-empire-new-york-city-san-diego-scary/
• NVIDIA letter of intent: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/openai-and-nvidia-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deploy-10gw-of-nvidia-systems

Creepy AI Toys:

• AI ‘companions’ pose risks to student mental health. What can schools do?: https://www.k12dive.com/news/ai-companions-student-mental-health-schools/761054/
• ‘I love you too!’ My family’s creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/16/i-love-you-too-my-familys-creepy-unsettling-week-with-an-ai-toy
• Curio: https://heycurio.com/
• Oh… and a visit from a “Friend” (https://friend.com/) – we’ve mentioned them before. This interview is… interesting: https://fortune.com/videos/watch/creator-of-'creepy'-ai-friend-necklace-says-it's-'like-god'/41086999-face-458f-b917-ee465c56d187

Crossing Lines: Microsoft & xAI:

• Microsoft bringing Claude (and Deepseek?) to Copilot (Reuters): https://www.reuters.com/business/microsoft-brings-anthropic-ai-models-365-copilot-diversifies-beyond-openai-2025-09-24/
• xAI is suing OpenAI for poaching talent & secrets (Reuters): https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/musks-xai-accuses-rival-openai-stealing-trade-secrets-2025-09-25/
• The official complaint: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/byvreaygope/XAI%20OPENAI%20TRADE%20SECRETS%20LAWSUIT%20complaint2.pdf

AI safety tool sparks backlash:

• AI safety tool sparks student backlash after flagging art as porn, deleting emails: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/24/students-lawsuit-ai-tool-gaggle/

*** THE BOILERPLATE ***

About The FAIK Files:

The FAIK Files is an offshoot project from Perry Carpenter's most recent book, FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

• Get the Book: ⁠FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions⁠ (Amazon Associates link)
• Check out the website for more info: ⁠https://thisbookisfaik.com⁠

Check out Perry & Mason's other show, the Digital Folklore Podcast:

• Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-folklore/id1657374458⁠
• Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2v1BelkrbSRSkHEP4cYffj?si=u4XTTY4pR4qEqh5zMNSVQA⁠

Want to connect with us? Here's how:

Connect with Perry:

• Perry on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrycarpenter⁠
• Perry on X: ⁠https://x.com/perrycarpenter⁠
• Perry on BlueSky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/perrycarpenter.bsky.social⁠

Connect with Mason:

• Mason on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-amadeus-a853a7242/⁠
• Mason on BlueSky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/wickedinterest.ing

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices