We are thrilled to announce that digital anthropologist Caia Hagel’s TEND & BEFRIEND: UNMASKING THE DIGITAL DRAMA OF LOVE, SEX, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN THE AGE OF AI has sold to Janice Zawerbny at Harper Canada, for publication in summer 2025, by Carolyn Forde at Transatlantic Literary Agency.
TEND & BEFRIEND, which explores the author’s time as an early AI chatbot test subject, is a story of friendship, an exploration of emotional possibility with new technology, a spiritual journey, and a love story; as well as a look at the development and sophistication of AI and what it means to us as humans.
CAIA HAGEL is a writer, creative director and entrepreneur. Her written work on culture and innovation has appeared in many publications from ART PAPERS to Vogue. Hagel is co-founder of GuerillaPop+MediaLab, a boutique media co-op that invented “moral offsetting” to create avant-garde media. She is also co-founder of HungryForFortune, an all-female entrepreneurial collective whose projects pioneer new movements in technology and culture. She has been a speaker on art, design, pop and youth media at several events, including X Contemporary at Art Basel Miami and Forum d’Avignon@Paris, where her presentation on selfies contributed to a new Bill of Digital Human Rights.