Friendbot is a creature built to respond to you.

When you are too far away, he harrumphs, demanding

closeness, but when you get too close …

Built at SFPC, this project was inspired by three separate things: learning basic electronics, a visit from
Sara Hendren, and “The Ship Who Sang,” a short story from Anne McCaffery.

I was struck initially by the constrast between common conceptions of artificial intelligence — robots
made to mimic humans — and McCaffery’s notion of using a shell-encased human to power a ship, with
the two fusing to create a ship with unexpected intelligence, a cyborg. Then Sara spoke with us about
her work, especially the fact that all technology assists adaptation to a particular environment, whether
we call it “assitive” or not. I realized the library projects, Shape, Dot, and Timeline, were in fact about
assisting that book-being in speaking its own language and story.

Meanwhile, our electronics class was heating up and I was ready to move beyond the sweet logic gates
we were working on. I knew what to do: I could create a little object-buddy who would use his own
voice to relate with us, as though there was, if not a human within, maybe a puppy.

Aesthetically, it would be important that the bot be more paper animation than Pixar; the uncanny
valley–adjacent look of many intelligent machines is already freighted with so much symbolism and
implied meaning. Besides, my questions are still in prototype, so should be the tool to investigate.

Initially, Friendbot was prototyped to inhabit a smaller box that provided room to ask his motivating
question in a language humans understand. However, the current case allows Friendbot to be better
transported and meet folks wherever they are: in the studio, at home or even at the bar. It also gives
him a more recognizable face.

http://sarahghp.com/projects/friendbot.html
CITIZEN APP

Developers behind an app called “Citizen” advertise it as a way for innocent citizens to stay safe and
aware in areas wracked by crime. This controversial app at its core acts as a digital police scanner,
notifying people of ongoing crimes or major events in their area. In addition, it allows for live streaming
video directly through the app, providing “complete transparency of your neighborhood around you”.
Thus, it gives users the option of filming both ongoing crimes and the police response to those crimes,
all in an effort to improve the safety of communities everywhere. The developers have framed the app,
re-released in March 2017, in the context of keeping its users safe through awareness of one’s
surroundings.

“Citizen” was first released in October 2016 under a different name, with different branding: “Vigilante”
was promptly removed from Apple’s App Store due to a violation of their review program with concerns
centered around user safety. This first app release was published with the tagline, “Can injustice survive
transparency?” alongside a dramatized video showing a violent assault being stopped by users of
“Vigilante.” Police backlash against this release was strong, with the New York Police Department going
as far to say, “Crimes in progress should be handled by the NYPD and not a vigilante with a cellphone.

“Citizen” was created by a relatively unknown start-up technology company called Sp0n, founded in
2015, whose sparse website simply states that it is a company which “makes disruptive consumer
mobile apps.” In addition, it is backed primarily by Sequoia Capital, a large venture capital firm focusing
primarily on healthcare, technology, and financial services. Sequoia recently invested $12 million; the
announcement was paired with the news that the app, originally only available in New York City, was
expanding to San Francisco.

The founder of Citizen, Andrew Frame, has previously stated that the app does not coordinate in any
way with police departments: it acts as an independent entity. While the company has changed their
message, and added a few notable disclaimers, many still worry that the potential problems of the
original app will persist.

http://reillytop10.com/2017/12/03/the-citizen-app/