The problem with AI devices programmed with personality is that their appealing interactive features can hide security risks and manipulation.

I told you last month about a new breed of Attachment Economy hardware devices designed for the desktop, and described the Attachment Economy idea in a previous column. I highlighted the Honor Robot Phone, Apple’s ELEGNT project, Apple’s J595 prototype, Lenovo’s AI Workmate Concept, and the OLED AI Mini PetBot as examples of the coming wave of desktop Attachment Economy gadgets.

(The “Attachment Economy” is the next phase in the extractive “Attention Economy” idea, whereby super-attention is the core element of a business model that uses AI to simulate human or animal attributes in order to get the user to feel emotional attachment to a product.)

The latest desktop Attachment Economy product I know of is being Kickstarted by a two-founder startup called KEYi Tech. The product is called LOONA DeskMate, and it’s a stand or a boom that, combined with your normal phone, becomes a kind of interactive AI desktop robot.

As with a smattering of similar devices, LOONA DeskMate is programmed with a “personality” and expressive eyes, and connects you to a chatbot. The device moves the phone to simulate body language via three brushless servo motors, while the on-screen eyes blink, emote and look around in response. It faces you, listens to what you say, and decides when you’re talking to it.

The product’s Kickstarter claims that LOONA DeskMate can “trigger multi-step workflows in the background,” using Gmail, Slack, Calendar, Zoom and more than 50 other applications.

LOONA DeskMate is like a few other products and concepts, but with one massive difference. Its AI is agentic, courtesy of OpenClaw.

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You already know about the “attention economy.” Social networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok offer infinite scrolling and push notifications to maximize your time glued to screens.

Tristan Harris at the Center for Humane Technology, who coined the phrase “attachment economy” in January, says it’s the “next evolution” of the extractive-tech model where companies use advanced technologies to commodify the human capacity to form attached bonds with other people and with pets.

In August, the idea began to gain traction in business and academic circles with a London School of Economics and Political Science blog post entitled, “Humans emotionally dependent on AI? Welcome to the attachment economy” by Dr. Aurélie Jean and Dr. Mark Esposito.

I’ve been writing about this concept for eight years — far longer than the concept or phrase Attachment Economy emerged. The first piece I wrote on the subject was for Fast Company in 2018 and titled: “The case against teaching kids to be polite to Alexa.”

Here are more of the articles I’ve written on the Attachment Economy:

Connecting the dots on the ‘attachment economy’

Breaking the humanoid robot delusion

How to win fake friends and influence fake people

Why ambient robots beat humanoid robots

Who needs a humanoid robot when everything is already robotic?

Humanoid robots are a bad idea

How AI slop bypasses reason to hack your feelings

Friends don’t let friends make friends with AI

How ‘human’ dehumanizes humans

Three bad reasons to be polite to AI

Who needs people when AI is so “human”?

Apple is lying. Robots don’t feel emotions.

Elon Musk’s beer-pouring ‘robots’ are more like puppets

Does it matter if your friends are real?

Using AI to bypass reason

As you can see, I’m all over this topic and feel strongly drawn to it. I made it my beat long before the Attachment Economy label was coined by Harris.

So now I’m writing a book about it. The working title is, of course, “The Attachment Economy.” And I’m writing it right here on Substack.

This is the first entry. My name is Mike Elgan. Welcome to the Attachment Economy.