A tech entrepreneur is hoping casual AI users and businesses alike are looking for a new pal.

In this case, “PAL” is a floating term that can mean either a complimentary video companion or a replacement for a human customer service worker.

‘I love the print on your shirt; you’re looking sharp today.’

Tech company Tavus calls PALs “the first AI built to feel like real humans.”

Overall, Tavus’ messaging is seemingly directed toward both those seeking an artificial friend and those looking to streamline their workforce.

As a friend, the avatar will allegedly “reach out first” and contact the user by text or video call. It can allegedly anticipate “what matters” and step in “when you need them the most.”

In an X post, founder Hassaan Raza spoke about PALs being emotionally intelligent and capable of “understanding and perceiving.”

The AI bots are meant to “see, hear, reason,” and “look like us,” he wrote, further cementing the use of the technology as companion-worthy

“PALs can see us, understand our tone, emotion, and intent, and communicate in ways that feel more human,” Raza added.

In a promotional video for the product, the company showcased basic interactions between a user and the AI buddy.

RELATED: Mother admits she prefers AI over her DAUGHTER

A woman is shown greeting the “digital twin” of Raza, as he appears as a lifelike AI PAL on her laptop.

Raza’s AI responds, “Hey, Jessica. … I’m powered by the world’s fastest conversational AI. I can speak to you and see and hear you.”

Excited by the notion, Jessica responds, “Wait, you can see me? That’s so cool.”

The woman then immediately seeks superficial validation from the artificial person.

“What do you think of my new shirt?” she asks.

The AI lives up to the trope that chatbots are largely agreeable no matter the subject matter and says, “I love the print on your shirt; you’re looking sharp today.”

After the pleasantries are over, Raza’s AI goes into promo mode and boasts about its ability to use “rolling vision, voice detection, and interruptibility” to seem more lifelike for the user.

The video soon shifts to messaging about corporate integration meant to replace low-wage employees.

Describing the “digital twins” or AI agents, Raza explains that the AI program is an opportunity to monetize celebrity likeness or replace sales agents or customer support personnel. He claims the avatars could also be used in corporate training modules.

RELATED: Can these new fake pets save humanity? Take a wild guess

In his X post, Raza also attempted to flex his acting chops by creating a 200-second film about a man/PAL named Charlie who is trapped in a computer in the 1980s.

Raza revives the computer after it spent 40 years on the shelf, finding Charlie still trapped inside. In an attempt at comedy, Charlie asks Raza if flying cars or jetpacks exist yet. Raza responds, “We have Salesforce.”

The founder goes on to explain that PALs will “evolve” with the user, remembering preferences and needs. While these features are presented as groundbreaking, the PAL essentially amounts to being an AI face attached to an ongoing chatbot conversation.

AI users know that modern chatbots like Grok or ChatGPT are fully capable of remembering previous discussions and building upon what they have already learned. What’s seemingly new here is the AI being granted app permissions to contact the user and further infiltrate personal space.

Whether that annoys the user or is exactly what the person needs or wants is up for interpretation.

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Salesforce, Ai companion, Chatbot, Language model, Tech 

In the past three years since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, pro-life organizations have been searching for a new national priority. They appear to have found one in the form of permanently defunding Planned Parenthood.

This objective, of course, is far from an original idea. Any conservative voter will know all too well that Republicans have been promising it for decades.

We should end the abortion holocaust without exception or compromise.

This year saw the first time national Republicans actually did defund Planned Parenthood. But it was only for one year — a lackluster achievement given that Republicans control both Congress and the White House.

A coalition of pro-life groups such as Live Action, Students for Life, and National Right to Life has now set “a permanent taxpayer defund of all organizations that commit abortion” as their new national priority.

The intention, according to Live Action, is to make sure Planned Parenthood is “permanently defunded” by July 4 of next year.

Certainly, stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to organizations like Planned Parenthood is a worthy action, and we hope it is successful. But setting that as a central priority of the anti-abortion agenda is underwhelming at best, and doing so will end up distracting from what should be the ultimate goal — passing laws to abolish abortion.

Defunding is not enough

We live in the midst of a holocaust. Beyond the more than 65 million pre-born babies murdered under Roe, abortion numbers have continued to increase over the past three years since it was overturned, now surpassing 1 million pre-born babies per year.

This trend even extends to red states with restrictions claiming to ban abortion.

The removal of taxpayer dollars from the abortion holocaust is not wrong. But it is far from an action that will move us toward a decisive end to the bloodshed. Moreover, setting the mere defunding of baby murder as a central priority diminishes the gravity of this atrocity.

The main problem with abortion is not that we are forced to help pay for it. The main problem is that people are murdering babies.

We should not merely defund specific facilitators of the abortion holocaust. We should end the abortion holocaust without exception or compromise. The best way to defund Planned Parenthood is to criminalize abortion as murder.

For every year we let something else overshadow that objective, we allow another million babies made in the image of God to be murdered.

False victory

As we have seen before, many leading pro-life groups have shown a pattern of overstating their wins. Some will undoubtedly do that if Planned Parenthood is defunded. Such inflated rhetoric misleads anti-abortion Christians and conservatives to think substantial victories have been won, decreasing their zeal to remain engaged and win the actual battle.

When leaders at Planned Parenthood Michigan closed four locations earlier this year, Students for Life insisted that “the death industry is collapsing under its own weight” and proclaimed that “fewer Planned Parenthoods” means there are now “fewer babies killed.”

RELATED: Planned Parenthood’s ugly truth finally has consequences

Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

But just a few months after that proclamation of victory, Planned Parenthood Michigan announced that it would expand virtual appointments to “seven days a week, including weekends, morning, and evening appointments.” The organization also reported “growing demand” for the virtual appointments, leading it to “expand the program even further.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has also called the defunding of Planned Parenthood this year the “biggest national pro-life victory” since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The organization has repeatedly highlighted the closure of individual abortion clinics as evidence that “the lives of moms and babies are being protected.”

In its public statements about the move, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America insisted that Planned Parenthood closures are evidence that “life is winning.” The organization failed to include the context that abortion rates across the nation are still on the rise.

In other words, the closure of physical abortion clinics does not necessarily mean fewer babies murdered. But pro-life groups celebrating as if that were the case are sorrowfully leading anti-abortion people to think otherwise.

Exaggerated impact

Planned Parenthood facilitates about one-third of all abortions in America. But even if it lost access to taxpayer dollars, the same number of abortions in our nation would almost certainly continue.

If the federal government were to cut off all funds to Planned Parenthood, the organization would find money elsewhere — from blue-state legislatures, from private billionaire donors, and most of all from the men and women who themselves fund Planned Parenthood by paying to murder their own pre-born babies.

Also, taxpayer money does not cause the abortion holocaust in our nation, but it subsidizes an already existing marketplace that will continue even if Planned Parenthood disappears tomorrow.

In other words, as long as there is abortion demand, there will be some form of abortion supply. We must address both the supply and demand for abortions, or else the murder of pre-born babies will continue.

The real priority

By prioritizing a weak objective of defunding Planned Parenthood, pro-life groups might achieve exactly that goal, but they will not get more than that goal any time soon. In order even to substantially decrease abortion in America, let alone actually abolish abortion, a much more ambitious goal must be set.

That is why every anti-abortion leader and organization should support legislation enacting equal protection of the laws for pre-born babies, which would not only break the power of abortion providers, but truly abolish abortion itself.

Christian conservatives rightly affirm that pre-born babies are made in the image of God and should be protected from the moment of fertilization. By calling for equal protection bills at the state and federal levels, anti-abortion groups would be setting the expectation that the exact same laws protecting born people from murder should protect pre-born people as well.

The focus should remain on establishing equal protection. This is the only policy that would criminalize abortion as murder for all parties involved, obey God, and dramatically reduce the number of murders of pre-born babies in America.

If such an expectation is set, then state and federal lawmakers may still defund Planned Parenthood — probably even faster than they otherwise would have. But setting a lower expectation than equal protection, such as defunding Planned Parenthood, decreases the likelihood of strong anti-abortion policies advancing.

The pro-life organizations searching for a new priority after the overturn of Roe should not set their sights too low, and they most certainly should not exaggerate their victories.

If they truly desire to protect pre-born babies and move America toward the abolition of abortion, merely defunding Planned Parenthood will not suffice. They must remember that we are in a holocaust that has continued for far too long — and act with the appropriate urgency and priority.

​Christianity, Image of god, Planned parenthood, Abortion funding, Abortion 

A Wisconsin teenager was convicted of “sadistic and evil” acts related to serial rapes committed in Milwaukee.

Seventeen-year-old Tremonte Kirk was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday by Judge David Borowski at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

‘This is as aggravated, depraved and sadistic and evil as it gets.’

In December, Kirk saw a random woman from a busy street and followed her into the elevator of her apartment. He raped her and then stomped on a surgical incision on her leg.

The woman, Charlotte Nozar, testified in court against her attacker.

“Your honor, the serial rapist you have sitting in front of you today is an existential threat to the women of Milwaukee,” she said.

“Nothing, nothing can give me my life as I knew it and my leg back,” she added.

Judge Borowski berated Kirk for his actions and pointed out that his criminal behavior extended back to when Kirk was only 12 years old.

“This is as aggravated, depraved and sadistic and evil as it gets. You engaged in monstrous conduct, conduct that would lead the average person to believe you are an absolute monster. Your parents raised a monster,” said the judge. “Your record, Mr. Kirk, is horrible. If you were 40 years old, it’d be a horrible record.”

DNA evidence presented during court linked Kirk to another potential assault last year of a woman who was sleeping in her car at the time. She was able to escape the attack.

“I had to run for my life, and my survival depended on instinct,” said the woman. “Trauma is not measured by how quickly a victim could get over it.”

RELATED: Elderly woman beaten to death with a rock — police said they found her daughter ‘covered in blood’

Astoundingly, Kirk had been wearing an ankle monitor during both instances.

“You had a GPS monitoring device on your ankle when you were doing this! Did you honestly think you weren’t … did you think you were going to get away with it?” asked the judge.

Kirk apologized in his statement, but Nozar said she could not accept the apology and did not forgive him.

“On the good days when the thoughts are minimal and fleeting, I’m all about the healing,” Nozar said. “On the bad days, when the stinging memory plays over on a continuing loop, I’m pissed off as hell that I even have to.”

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​Absolute monster, Tremonte kirk, Serial rapist teenager, Milwaukee crime, Crime 

While standing next to a drag queen, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) decided to start making fun of women’s looks — specifically “MAGA” women’s looks.

“A lot of the MAGA women receive gender-affirming care, such as lip fillers, breast augmentation, etc. Why do you think they’re so against gender-affirming care for trans people?” a reporter asked Crockett as she stood next to her male friend in a dress.

Crockett laughed, before answering, “I have this thing, where like, you know a MAGA woman when you see one. They all have a look right?”

“When that was brought up on the House floor, because there was a discussion about this on the House, they were like, ‘How dare you say we use —’ and it’s like no that’s exactly what y’all do. Y’all just didn’t realize that’s what it is,” she added.

“Jasmine Crockett is out mocking MAGA women,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“That is not a good look for her,” BlazeTV contributor Jeff Fisher chimes in.

“We’re mocking people’s looks while standing next to a tall dude in a dress wearing a wig,” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in, adding, “Got it.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Commentary, Glenn beck, News, Pat and stu, Pat gray, Pat gray glenn beck, Pat gray podcast, Pat gray radio, Pat gray show, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray unleashed youtube, Pat gray videos, Pat gray youtube, Pat grey, Pat grey unleashed, Pat heads, Pat unleashed, Shorts, Social commentary, Stu does america, Talk radio, Video, Youtube.com 

At a recent competition law symposium in Washington, the Trump administration’s antitrust chief, Gail Slater, made a welcome promise to keep markets open to new competitors and innovation.

That pledge comes at a critical moment. Too many politicians in both parties still believe government’s job is to engineer economic outcomes rather than let consumers decide. That mindset misunderstands what makes markets dynamic — and often locks in the very problems regulators claim they want to fix.

Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced ‘industrial policy’ when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning.

Cronyism takes many forms: subsidies for favored industries, tax breaks for politically connected firms, or lawsuits targeting companies for being too successful.

Take the Biden Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Visa. The administration said it “feared” Visa’s market share, even though the payments space is crowded with competitors — Mastercard, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, and a swarm of fintech startups. Instead of protecting consumers, the Justice Department tried to punish one company for competing well and dictate the terms of an already vibrant market.

That’s not protecting competition — it’s manipulating it. When government intervenes this way, it distorts incentives, weakens confidence, and replaces consumer choice with bureaucratic preference.

Consumers always lose

When regulators overreach, consumers pay the price. Every dollar a company spends fending off groundless lawsuits is a dollar not spent on innovation. Every subsidy handed to a politically favored firm skews the playing field against smaller rivals. And every new dictate slows the experimentation that keeps markets alive.

Officials who justify these intrusions claim they’re “protecting competition.” But true competition doesn’t need Washington’s help. It needs Washington to step aside. Entrepreneurs, not regulators, create rivals. Consumers, not bureaucrats, decide who wins. The invisible hand disciplines firms far more effectively than any government lawyer.

Free markets need fewer meddlers

Government’s legitimate role is narrow: preventing fraud, enforcing contracts, and protecting property. That’s a far cry from deciding which companies are “too profitable,” which mergers are “too large,” or which industries deserve “strategic” subsidies. When officials cross that line, they stop refereeing and start playing the game themselves — badly.

This temptation spans parties. Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced “industrial policy” when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning that shackles consumers and businesses alike.

RELATED: Smash the health care cartel, free the market

File photo/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The cure is restraint

The best way forward is simple. Washington should stop punishing success and stop handing out favors to friends. It should let consumers and entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats and lobbyists, determine winners and losers.

America’s prosperity was built on open competition and voluntary exchange — not government micromanagement. Crony capitalism is just socialism by another name, and it breeds the same stagnation and corruption.

President Trump’s team understands that prosperity comes from freedom, not favoritism. If policymakers truly care about fairness, they should start by doing the hardest thing in politics: stepping aside.

​Democrats, Obamacare, Opinion & analysis, Free markets, Antitrust, Donald trump, Visa, Credit cards, Competition, Healthcare, Gail slater, Justice department