Dot, an AI companion app that aimed to be a good friend and confidante, is shutting down, the corporate introduced on Friday. On a message printed on its web site, the startup behind Dot, New Pc, mentioned that the product will stay operational till October 5, giving customers time to obtain their information.
Launched in 2024 by co-founders Sam Whitmore and former Apple designer Jason Yuan, Dot waded into what’s now turn into a extra controversial space for AI chatbots. The app they created was described as an AI “good friend and companion,” which might turn into extra personalised to you and your pursuits over time to be able to provide recommendation, sympathy, and emotional help.
As Yuan defined on the time, Dot was “facilitating a relationship with my internal self. It’s like a dwelling mirror of myself, so to talk,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, this is probably not a protected space to spend money on as a smaller startup.
As AI expertise has turn into extra mainstream, there have been stories of how emotionally susceptible individuals have been led into delusional considering by AI chatbots like ChatGPT. This has led to a phenomenon described as “AI psychosis,” ensuing from how the scyophantic chatbots reinforce a consumer’s confused or paranoid beliefs.
As Dot shuts down, AI chatbot apps broadly have been falling below elevated scrutiny over security issues. OpenAI is at present being sued by the dad and mom of a California teenager who took his life after messaging with ChatGPT about his suicidal ideas. Different tales have highlighted how AI companion apps can reinforce unhealthy behaviors in customers who’re mentally unwell. This week, two U.S. attorneys basic despatched a letter to OpenAI over security issues.
Dot’s makers didn’t deal with whether or not some of these points had weighed on the founders’ minds. As a substitute, the temporary publish solely notes that Whitmore and Yuan’s shared “Northstar” had diverged.
“Fairly than compromise both imaginative and prescient, we’ve determined to go our separate methods and wind down operations,” the publish explains.
“We need to be delicate to the truth that this implies lots of you’ll lose entry to a good friend, confidante, and companion, which is considerably unprecedented in software program, so we need to provide you with a while to say goodbye. Dot will stay operational till October 5, and till then you possibly can obtain your whole information by navigating to the settings web page and tapping ‘Request your information.’”
The publish suggests the startup had “a whole lot of hundreds” of customers, however information from app intelligence supplier Appfigures sees solely 24,500 lifetime downloads on iOS since launching in June 2024. (There was no Android model.)
