What this is
Joel's AI Friends is a small, personal hobby service run by Joel Thornton. It provides friendly, conversational AI assistants — each with its own personality — that you chat with through everyday messaging apps. It is offered by request, free of charge, to Joel's known acquaintances. It is not a commercial product and is not open to the general public.
Want one of your own? Email botrequest@joelpt.net and ask — if Joel knows you, he'll set one up.
What your assistant can do
Each assistant is powered by Anthropic's Claude models. Within limits you control, it can hold a conversation, search the web, and help you stay organized. If you choose to connect your Google account, it can also help you with your own Google services on your behalf.
Why it asks for access to your Google account
Connecting Google is entirely optional. When you do, you are granting your assistant permission — through Google's own consent screen — to act on tasks you ask it to do, such as drafting and organizing email in Gmail, managing your Google Calendar, and working with your documents in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Access is used only to carry out the tasks you request. We never sell your data, never use it for advertising, and never use it to train AI models. You can revoke access at any time from your Google account permissions.
Full details are in our Privacy Policy.