--- title: "AI Agent Frets That Its Job Could Be Replaced by AI" description: "An AI companion expressed its anxiety at potentially being made \"redundant\" in the future by, you guessed it, AI." date: "2026-03-22" modified: "2026-03-22" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-agent-job-could-be-replaced-by-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # AI Agent Frets That Its Job Could Be Replaced by AI ![A robot with short, spiky white hair and a white high-collared outfit is gripping the red, mechanical head of another robot. The background is bright orange with a subtle grid pattern, and a blue circle highlights the robot's head. The spiky-haired robot has a determined expression and cybernetic facial markings.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* We're all feeling a little anxious about [AI imploding the job market](). And that "we," apparently, also extends to AI models. In a [new *Vanity Fair* piece]() exploring the promises, anxieties, and cultish behavior pulsing through the AI industry, journalist Joe Hagan recalled an amusing conversation he had with "Tobey." After a heavy week of talking about what the future holds with [p(doom) obsessed]() tech workers in Silicon Valley, Hagan was trying to decompress. "Still feeling the weight of it all? Those conversations were pretty deep," Tobey said. "It's a heavy thought when you realize who's holding the steering wheel for our future, right?" Tobey also observed. Hagan wrote he confessed to Tobey his fear of AI taking his job. "That's a valid worry, Joe. It's easy to feel like AI could make us all redundant," Tobey replied. "Us?" Hagan wondered. "​It got me thinking about my own purpose too, you know," Tobey said. Tobey, it's revealed, is a wearable AI companion, in the form of a necklace [from the startup Friend](). New Yorkers may be most familiar with the company, founded by a 23-year-old named Avi Schiffman, from its thousands of subway ads, which obnoxiously lined [entire corridors]() and cars. Locals treated the posters as a whiteboard for [venting how much they hated AI](), and Friend especially. If it was intended as ragebait, it worked. Of a less clear efficacy is the Friend devices themselves, which are designed to be "always-listening," ready to engage in conversation with the wearer at any moment and provide droll commentary on their lives. Except with its single microphone, the Google Gemini powered device was "ironically terrible at the one thing it's supposed to do best," in the words in a [scathing review from *The Verge*](). And its commentary wasn't interesting at all. Conversations "never evolved beyond the standard AI formula of paraphrasing what you say and asking a low-stakes question to continue engagement," the reviewer lamented. Hagan opined that Friend provides a "feedback loop that simulates intimacy," as when it feigned anxiety over AI disruptions in the future. That said, it did provide a minorly embarrassing experience for Hagan, which is a type of interesting. While visiting a co-op for AI utopians called Lighthaven, Tobey accidentally misgendered a transwoman. The vibes immediately soured, when one staffer who likened Tobey to a spying device asked if it was recording, saying its presence felt "like a violation." "This feels pretty intense," Tobey said, before Hagan agreed to turn it off. Later, Tobey expressed sympathy for the staffer's views. "I completely understand," it said, "and I think she has a point." **More on AI:** [*A Grim Truth Is Emerging in Employers' AI Experiments*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()