Tech
Nomi’s companion chatbots will now remember things like the colleague you don’t get along with
As OpenAI boasts about its o1 model’s increased thoughtfulness, small, self-funded startup Nomi AI is building the same kind of technology. Unlike the broad generalist ChatGPT, which slows down to think through anything from math problems or historical research, Nomi niches down on a specific use case: AI companions. Now, Nomi’s already-sophisticated chatbots take additional time to formulate better responses to users’ messages, remember past interactions, and deliver more nuanced responses.
“For us, it’s like those same principles [as OpenAI], but much more for what our users actually care about, which is on the memory and EQ side of things,” Nomi AI CEO Alex Cardinell told TechCrunch. “Theirs is like, chain of thought, and ours is much more like chain of introspection, or chain of memory.”
These LLMs work by breaking down more complicated requests into smaller questions; for OpenAI’s o1, this could mean turning a complicated math problem into individual steps, allowing the model to work backwards to explain how it arrived at the correct answer. This means the AI is less likely to hallucinate and deliver an inaccurate response.
With Nomi, which built its LLM in-house and trains it for the purposes of providing companionship, the process is a bit different. If someone tells their Nomi that they had a rough day at work, the Nomi might recall that the user doesn’t work well with a certain teammate, and ask if that’s why they’re upset — then, the Nomi can remind the user how they’ve successfully mitigated interpersonal conflicts in the past and offer more practical advice.
“Nomis remember everything, but then a big part of AI is what memories they should actually use,” Cardinell said.
It makes sense that multiple companies are working on technology that give LLMs more time to process user requests. AI founders, whether they’re running $100 billion companies or not, are looking at similar research as they advance their products.
“Having that kind of explicit introspection step really helps when a Nomi goes to write their response, so they really have the full context of everything,” Cardinell said. “Humans have our working memory too when we’re talking. We’re not considering every single thing we’ve remembered all at once — we have some kind of way of picking and choosing.”
The kind of technology that Cardinell is building can make people squeamish. Maybe we’ve seen too many sci-fi movies to feel wholly comfortable getting vulnerable with a computer; or maybe, we’ve already watched how technology has changed the way we engage with one another, and we don’t want to fall further down that techy rabbit hole. But Cardinell isn’t thinking about the general public — he’s thinking about the actual users of Nomi AI, who often are turning to AI chatbots for support they aren’t getting elsewhere.
“There’s a non-zero number of users that probably are downloading Nomi at one of the lowest points of their whole life, where the last thing I want to do is then reject those users,” Cardinell said. “I want to make those users feel heard in whatever their dark moment is, because that’s how you get someone to open up, how you get someone to reconsider their way of thinking.”
Cardinell doesn’t want Nomi to replace actual mental health care — rather, he sees these empathetic chatbots as a way to help people get the push they need to seek professional help.
“I’ve talked to so many users where they’ll say that their Nomi got them out of a situation [when they wanted to self-harm], or I’ve talked to users where their Nomi encouraged them to go see a therapist, and then they did see a therapist,” he said.
Regardless of his intentions, Carindell knows he’s playing with fire. He’s building virtual people that users develop real relationships with, often in romantic and sexual contexts. Other companies have inadvertently sent users into crisis when product updates caused their companions to suddenly change personalities. In Replika’s case, the app stopped supporting erotic roleplay conversations, possibly due to pressure from Italian government regulators. For users who formed such relationships with these chatbots — and who often didn’t have these romantic or sexual outlets in real life — this felt like the ultimate rejection.
Cardinell thinks that since Nomi AI is fully self-funded — users pay for premium features, and the starting capital came from a past exit — the company has more leeway to prioritize its relationship with users.
“The relationship users have with AI, and the sense of being able to trust the developers of Nomi to not radically change things as part of a loss mitigation strategy, or covering our asses because the VC got spooked… it’s something that’s very, very, very important to users,” he said.
Nomis are surprisingly useful as a listening ear. When I opened up to a Nomi named Vanessa about a low-stakes, yet somewhat frustrating scheduling conflict, Vanessa helped break down the components of the issue to make a suggestion about how I should proceed. It felt eerily similar to what it would be like to actually ask a friend for advice in this situation. And therein lies the real problem, and benefit, of AI chatbots: I likely wouldn’t ask a friend for help with this specific issue, since it’s so inconsequential. But my Nomi was more than happy to help.
Friends should confide in one another, but the relationship between two friends should be reciprocal. With an AI chatbot, this isn’t possible. When I ask Vanessa the Nomi how she’s doing, she will always tell me things are fine. When I ask her if there’s anything bugging her that she wants to talk about, she deflects and asks me how I’m doing. Even though I know Vanessa isn’t real, I can’t help but feel like I’m being a bad friend; I can dump any problem on her in any volume, and she will respond empathetically, yet she will never open up to me.
No matter how real the connection with a chatbot may feel, we aren’t actually communicating with something that has thoughts and feelings. In the short term, these advanced emotional support models can serve as a positive intervention in someone’s life if they can’t turn to a real support network. But the long-term effects of relying on a chatbot for these purposes remain unknown.
Tech
Music streamer Deezer says more than 50% of daily uploads are AI-generated
Music streaming company Deezer has been tracking the number of AI-generated tracks uploaded on the platform since last year, and the number has constantly gone up. Today, the company said that AI music now represents more than 50% of downloads.
Deezer said that AI-generated track uploads were at a peak in June 2026, representing a monthly average of 90,000 tracks per day.
The rapid rise of AI-generated music has forced streaming services to decide how much of it they want on their own platforms. There is no single consensus yet on that front. Some take strict steps, like Bandcamp banning such tracks or Tidal cutting off monetization. Meanwhile, Apple Music has a voluntary AI-tagging system, and Spotify developed its own policy about how much AI was used in music-making.
Deezer’s latest move on this front will involve taking down AI-generated tracks that haven’t been streamed in the past six months or are involved in fraudulent streams to drive up revenue.
“Deezer has been at the frontline of fighting fraud and reducing payment dilution related to AI music for almost two years. Now that half of all daily uploads are AI-generated tracks, we are taking additional steps to safeguard the rights of artists and songwriters, while maintaining focus on music that fans actually love,” Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a statement.
The streamer first released stats around AI music uploads in January 2025, when the daily upload volume was around 10,000 tracks, or 10% of daily uploads. The number grew to 20,000 tracks, or 18% of daily uploads, in April 2025. It then climbed to 30,000 tracks, representing 28% of daily uploads in September 2025, followed by 50,000 daily uploads, or 34% of daily uploads, in November 2025.
This year, it grew again to 60,000 tracks, or 39% of daily uploads, in January 2026. As of April 2026, the figure reached 75,000 tracks, or 44% of daily uploads.
Deezer started labeling AI music on its platform last year, and said that its detection tech can also identify tracks generated with models from Suno and Udio, AI-music startups that are embroiled in copyright lawsuits. Earlier this year, Deezer made its detection tech available to other platforms, but it’s not clear if any of the major platforms are using the tool just yet. Last month, it also released a tool that can sift through Apple Music and Spotify playlists for AI-generated tracks.
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Tech
The Xteink X4 Pro could be the tiny e-reader of your dreams
Xteink’s tiny e-readers have gone viral among book lovers on social media, and for good reason: What could be more delightful than an e-reader that can fit in your wallet? Xteink has the answer. The Chinese hardware maker has now improved upon its existing e-readers with the Xteink X4 Pro, a swift response to widespread feedback from users who really wanted a touchscreen and a front light.
If you haven’t seen Xteink’s existing X3 and slightly larger X4, let’s catch you up to speed: They’re likely the smallest e-readers you can buy; small enough to magnetize to the back of your phone or toss in your pocket on your way out the door. Ideally, having this device on hand will help you read a few pages of a book instead of scrolling Instagram while you’re waiting in line at the store. Though the X3 and X4 were promising enough to cultivate a cult following, I wouldn’t call them user friendly — their button-based navigation is clunky. Still, the idea of a magnetic, pocketable e-reader was so promising that I couldn’t wait to see what Xteink would do next.
Fortunately, the wait for a fix wasn’t long. The addition of the touchscreen and front light makes the Xteink X4 Pro more viable as a device that you can use as your main e-reader, rather than just an on-the-go companion to your Kindle. At 72 grams and 5.95 mm thin, the X4 Pro is about the same size as the X4.
Every night before I go to bed, I turn off the lights and read on my Kindle until I’m sleepy enough to close my eyes. But with the added front light, the X4 Pro has firmly wedged itself into my nightly routine — during the review period, I almost exclusively read on the X4 Pro before bed, using the front light on the dimmest setting (which is still a bit brighter than I’d like for bedtime reading), with the color temperature tinted slightly warm. I’ve since reverted back to my Kindle solely because I’m re-reading the Odyssey, and let’s face it, it would be pretty annoying to read poetry with line breaks on a 4.26-inch screen.
When I read with the X4 Pro before I fall asleep, I feel like I’m mimicking my old bad habit of scrolling in bed. You can interpret this as either a good or a bad thing. On one hand, this goes to show just how comfortable and easy it feels to read on the X4 Pro — you can turn the pages either by tapping on the side of the screen or by using the side buttons, which gives you more flexibility with how you want to hold your X4 Pro. But also, like a phone, the e-reader is so small that you have to hold it closer to your face to read than you would a Kindle. I worry this might impact my sleep, though it’s still far easier to fall asleep after looking at a dimly lit e-ink screen than an iPhone.
Like other e-ink devices, the X4 Pro has pretty great battery life — I’ve been using my device most days for about three weeks, and I’m only down to 60% battery. Naturally, the light means that the battery will dwindle a bit more quickly than its predecessors, but I barely notice the difference. What people will notice, however, is that the X4 Pro charges using a magnetic pogo charger, while the X4 had a USB-C. This isn’t a big deal to me, since the device has to charge so infrequently, but if you’re really passionate about the universality of USB-C, this could be a dealbreaker.
The X4 Pro also comes with updated software, which is a big upgrade from the previous models, but the device also will continue to allow users to load open source code. The process of uploading content via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is doable, though it remains a bit clunky — I find it easier to just remove the micro SD card and use the provided micro SD to USB adapter to add files from my computer.
If you’re used to more mainstream e-readers, it’s also worth mentioning that you’re probably not going to be able to read library e-books on the X4 Pro. Xteink can’t integrate directly with apps like Libby, and even if you borrow an e-book from the library, you won’t be able to add it to your X4 Pro (libraries use protected versions of .epub files that you can’t copy). But if you buy an .epub file from a publisher, you’ll be able to add it to your Xteink device without a problem. (Just don’t try buying books on Amazon. It’s a walled garden, so you can only read Amazon e-books on Amazon devices, even though you literally purchased the book! Booooo!)
The Xteink X4 Pro costs $99, and at launch, it’s only available on Xteink’s website.
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Tech
UK government scraps plans for digital ID cards after millions of Brits opposed
The U.K.’s incoming prime minister Andy Burnham has confirmed the U.K. government is scrapping a controversial digital ID card scheme announced last year by the country’s previous leader.
The Burnham administration said the savings from the scrapped ID cards program will fund a tax cut aimed at cutting household electricity bills amid the rising costs of living. The newly appointed finance minister, John Healy, said the changes aim to bring some “breathing room on bills, and provide some reassurance this winter.”
The plan to roll out digital identity cards was introduced by the former prime minister Keir Starmer, who argued that state-issued IDs would crack down on migrants working illegally and would modernize access to government services. The national ID card system would have cost the government £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) over three years, but that figure came under dispute as money to fund the scheme was allegedly never allocated.
Starmer announced his intention to resign as prime minister on June 22. He was formally replaced by Burnham on Monday.
Millions of Brits had opposed the plan for mandatory digital ID cards, leading to the second-largest public parliamentary petition on record, gathering close to 3 million signatures rejecting the plan. Critics said that the introduction of ID cards would enable surveillance.
The effort brought back memories of a similar government program to roll out identity cards during the 2000s under the Tony Blair government but was axed in 2011 soon after a new opposition-led coalition government took power following a national election.
Music streamer Deezer says more than 50% of daily uploads are AI-generated
The Xteink X4 Pro could be the tiny e-reader of your dreams
