'Friends' does catch his interest, but he elects to gloss over it. She probably just means like robots and stuff. Most of his experience with robotics experts leads him to believe they're either super into cutting people up or treating robots like people. Sometimes both. He'll just assume she really likes her robot friends and move on.

"He acts just like a real cat," he says it with a subdued tone of astonishment as he watches it move around, "that's amazing."