*By Madison Alworth*
Siri can play your jam on demand and Alexa gives you the weather, but the app makers behind Hugging Face really want to be there for you when you need a laugh, some encouragement, or friendly advice.
That's the promise of the artificial intelligence chatbot, designed to exchange messages, emojis, and life lessons with a generation of users desperate for a response whenever they text ー teenagers.
"Ultimately, we think that everyone will chat with an A.I. everyday, all day," said Clément Delangue, a co-founder and the CEO of Hugging Face. "But as for most new technology and mainstream technologies, they were the first to adopt it."
Though teenagers may be the first cohort willing to accept A.I. B.F.F.s, Delangue said anyone can befriend Hugging Face, which will attempt to respond to text queries with personalized responses as the app begins to "care" about you, but not exactly the way a human might.
"A dog, a cat is a different form of intelligence. It's not a human form of intelligence," Delangue said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar. "But you really enjoy playing with your cat or with your dog every day, and you create some form of emotional attachment."
Hugging Face is designed to mimic this sort of unconditional relationship using A.I.
"We think the same thing is going to happen for artificial intelligence, meaning everyone will have their A.I. B.F.F. that they're going to chat with every day," Delangue said.
Hugging Face has already made some well-heeled friends. It raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding last year and recently raised $4 million in a seed round led by Ronny Conway of a_capital, an early investor in Instagram. Delangue said that the investments will help the company to develop its technology without worrying about having to make money for the next few years.
Hugging Face is available as a stand-alone app and as an add-on for Facebook Messenger.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/new-chatbot-wants-to-be-your-bff).
As major social media and tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft announce plans for metaverse technology, chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and more stand to benefit as the technology rolls out and evolves. But who will take the lead and benefit the most? Paul Meeks, Portfolio Manager at Independent Solutions Wealth Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the metaverse chipmaker race, who could come out on top, the timeline of how this sector will heat up, and more.
IBM's spinoff, Kyndryl, is officially an independent public company. The $19 billion business is now listed on the NYSE under the ticker KD, becoming one of the largest players in the IT services market. David Wyshner, CFO of Kyndryl, joined Cheddar to discuss what this milestone means for the company moving forward.
Emma Searson, an author on the just-released Renewables on the Rise report and the director, 100% Renewable Campaign at Environment America, joined Cheddar to discuss the rapidly growing renewable energy sector. Between 2011 and 2020, the report shows that wind, solar, and geothermal energy production grew about 15 percent annually and that wind and solar alone account for 11 percent of electricity in the country. "There are a few really important drivers of the renewable energy progress that we're seeing all across the country," Searson said, highlighting falling prices, technology improvements, and supportive policies.
Wendy O, host of 'The O Show' joins Cheddar News to discuss the recent rally from cryptocurrency, Ether. She also discussed incoming New York City mayor Eric Adams wanting to teach kids crypto in schools.
Cryptocurrencies are getting off to a good week. Ethereum surged more than 4% in 24 hours on Monday, hitting a new all-time high above $4,700. Meanwhile, Bitcoin surged 7% to a price of $66,250. Haohan Xu, founder and CEO of Apifiny, joins Cheddar News with thoughts on the growing sector.
Payment processor Paypal will roll out a Venmo option for Amazon customers beginning in 2022 as the payment app continues to grow the number of merchants it works with.
