Artificial Intelligence ‘Friends’

By Kevin RooseTechnology columnist and co-host of the Times podcast “Hard Fork”Artificial intelligence, we are told, is a transformative economic force; it will change workers’ jobs, boost corporate profits and reshape industries. But for the last month, I’ve been investigating its social side — by making more than a dozen A.I. “friends.”I created these friends on apps like Nomi, Kindroid and Replika, all of…