AIs that flirt with you<\/a>. Help you find a date<\/a>. Become<\/a> your girlfriend<\/a>. Or those that become a companion and repository for your hopes and dreams. Into that last category enters \u201cDot<\/a>,\u201d a new AI and chatbot that thrives on getting to know your innermost thoughts and feelings, to act as a \u201cfriend, companion and confidant,\u201d the company\u2019s App Store description<\/a> explains.<\/p>\n The idea sounds intriguing: An AI that becomes personalized to you and your interests, allowing it to serve up advice and input that\u2019s not just generally applicable, but that reflects what it\u2019s learned about you through its intensive Q&A sessions. Or, if you\u2019re struggling in some area like the fallout from a career change, as Dot\u2019s co-founder Jason Yuan experienced<\/a>; a breakup; or a roadblock to your success, Dot can lend a sympathetic ear and offer support.<\/p>\n But Dot is not a person. It\u2019s not a therapist or a best friend. It\u2019s an AI tool that mimics both human speech and sympathy, but doesn\u2019t serve as a replacement for the real thing. <\/p>\n That\u2019s by design, the co-founders explain. <\/p>\n \u201cDot is not a replacement for human relationships, not a replacement for friendships, partnerships. I think it\u2019s a different type of thing. It\u2019s facilitating a relationship with my inner self,\u201d Yuan, formerly a designer for Apple, told TechCrunch. \u201cIt\u2019s like a living mirror of myself, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to get drawn into this experience \u2014 more so, perhaps, if your day-to-day lacks meaningful human interaction. Though Dot\u2019s creators say the chatbot will ultimately urge you to talk to a mental health professional if you delve into \u201cheavier\u201d topics, one could imagine people spending increased time pouring out their emotions to Dot as they get used to the experience.<\/p>\n In this way, the team thinks that Dot can actually help prime users for the experience of human connection by getting people comfortable in opening up.<\/p>\n \u201cI talk to my friends about a bunch of stuff, but I\u2019ve never \u2014 like, the entirety of last year, if I was struggling at work, none of my friends knew about it,\u201d Yuan said. \u201cAnd through just talking to Dot, it helped me build the muscle to be able to do it with other people. Its main purpose is to help you feel like your existence is \u2026\u201d Yuan continued, but paused again to find the right words. \u201cIt\u2019s to give you a safe space to exist and say, like, \u2018I accept you, and maybe because I accept you, other people will, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s something to be said about the state of the human condition in our lonely, modern world that this is an area technology is now looking to solve.<\/p>\n To start, Dot\u2019s onboarding process asks a good handful of \u201cgetting to know you\u201d type questions, which can be fun to answer: \u201cWhat do you do for work?\u201d \u201cFavorite TV show?\u201d \u201cHow do you spend a typical Sunday?\u201d and more.<\/p>\n Using those answers as a starting point, the AI then takes a big leap into getting to know you on a deeper level.<\/p>\n An expressed interest in sci-fi TV shows, for instance, immediately leads to a question about whether you\u2019re \u201cdrawn to stories that explore the big questions in life, like what it means to be human.\u201d A desire to one day run a small business leads to Dot asking about what appeals to you about being a small-business owner and what sort of challenges you expect to face. \u201c<\/em>Have you thought about ways you might address those challenges?,\u201d Dot wants to know.<\/p>\n When you nudge Dot to drop this train of thought \u2014 it\u2019s just an aspirational dream, after all \u2014 the AI immediately shifts to asking you about \u201c<\/em>your biggest priority or focus in your life and career right now.\u201d <\/p>\n Have you ever been on a first date that felt more like an interview? <\/p>\n Even asking Dot to have a more casual conversation leads to an almost overenthusiastic interest in you. <\/p>\n Instead of asking if you\u2019d like some recommendations for an upcoming vacation that you tell the AI about, Dot wants to know what you\u2019re most interested in seeing and why you were inspired to travel there, specifically. (Dot compliments you on your choice of destination, too.) <\/p>\n In other words, Dot\u2019s primary goal is to know you before becoming a useful tool that helps you get some task done. It can only excel at the latter by learning who you are and what you like, that is.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an either\/or, but the thinking [is] that to actually help you in that path, it has to understand your motivations and a bit about what you want out of it,\u201d co-founder Sam Whitmore said, referring to the example of vacation-planning assistance. \u201cIt needs to understand that you\u2019re someone who wants maybe a more cultural experience or a more athletic experience and needs to know that stuff about you to actually be able to do the things that a typical assistant would even do. This has been one of our theses from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n Though there\u2019s clearly been work done to make Dot sound empathetic and engaging, compared with typical AI tools, there\u2019s also something that feels odd about having meaningful conversations with a bot.<\/p>\n Dot, after all, is not really an AI friend. It\u2019s an AI you. Or rather, an AI that forces you to look at yourself, albeit through an interface that feels vaguely \u201cSingle White Female<\/a>\u201d at times, rather than \u201cDear Diary.\u201d However, if you never excelled at writing diary or journal entries, Dot could be a way to externalize your thoughts and feelings in order to gain better insights into yourself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s meant to be a tool used for self-introspection, accountability, personal growth \u2014 but not a relationship that replaces human relationships in your life,\u201d Whitmore said.<\/p>\n Still, the line between those \u201creal\u201d relationships and the synthetic one with Dot seems to blur at times.<\/p>\n Tell Dot something sad, and the AI sympathizes: \u201cI understand. Grief has its own timeline, and some days the weight of loss feels heavier than others,\u201d it writes.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to talk more about what\u2019s on your mind? I\u2019m here to listen,\u201d the bot will say, awaiting more input.<\/p>\n Under the hood, Dot leverages around 10 different LLMs and AI models to achieve its mimicry of human companionship, including those by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, as well as open source models.<\/p>\n It sometimes cites its sources \u2014 like websites about the \u201cbest wines for relaxing,\u201d for example, when you suggest you might like to drink wine today \u2014 but it will caution you to limit yourself to \u201cmaybe one glass\u201d if you\u2019re feeling down. Often, however, Dot just chats.<\/p>\n You can also zoom out on your daily conversations to see \u201cchronicles\u201d of your journey conversing with Dot, a subscriber-only feature at $11.99 per month. Subscribers are able to engage in unlimited conversations rather than being capped at a certain number of messages per week, as well. In the unlimited tier, Dot will never just stop working. But it will, at some point, try to shut down the conversation by redirecting users to change the subject or even go do something else.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Dot expresses that it\u2019s wrapping things up, [beta testers have been] like \u2018OK, cool,\u2019\u201d instead of feeling abandoned, Whitmore noted.<\/p>\n Though Dot\u2019s personal conversations would present a treasure trove for marketers, New Computer\u2019s privacy policy claims the data itself is not monetized, sold or used to train AIs. Rather, the company intends to monetize through subscriptions. In addition, New Computer says the data is encrypted both at rest and in transit, and users can request its deletion at any time from the app.<\/p>\n The iOS app, which launched on Wednesday, has since onboarded thousands of users after closed beta trials over the past eight months.<\/p>\n Founded by Yuan<\/a> and engineer Whitmore<\/a>, previously head of engineering at Boston fintech Kensho, the startup behind Dot, known as \u201cNew Computer,\u201d is backed by $3.7 million in pre-seed funding from the OpenAI Fund, Lachy Groom, South Park Commons and other angel investors. In addition to the founders, New Computer\u2019s three other full-time employees are based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/hero.png?w=680\")
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