Personalized AI companion app Dot is shutting down

Dot, an AI companion app that aimed to be a buddy and confidante, is shutting down, the corporate announced on Friday. On a message printed on its web site, the startup behind Dot, New Laptop, 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 “buddy and companion,” which might turn into extra personalised to you and your pursuits over time so as to provide recommendation, sympathy, and emotional help.

As Yuan defined on the time, Dot was “facilitating a relationship with my interior self. It’s like a dwelling mirror of myself, so to talk,” he mentioned.

Nevertheless, this is probably not a secure space to spend money on as a smaller startup.

As AI know-how has turn into extra mainstream, there have been studies of how emotionally weak 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 person’s confused or paranoid beliefs.

As Dot shuts down, AI chatbot apps broadly have been falling underneath elevated scrutiny over security issues. OpenAI is currently being sued by the mother and father of a California teenager who took his life after messaging with ChatGPT about his suicidal ideas. Different stories have highlighted how AI companion apps can reinforce unhealthy behaviors in customers who’re mentally unwell. This week, two U.S. attorneys common sent a letter to OpenAI over security issues.

Dot’s makers didn’t handle whether or not these kinds of points had weighed on the founders’ minds. As an alternative, the temporary publish solely notes that Whitmore and Yuan’s shared “Northstar” had diverged.

“Moderately than compromise both imaginative and prescient, we’ve determined to go our separate methods and wind down operations,” the publish explains.

“We wish to be delicate to the truth that this implies lots of you’ll lose entry to a buddy, confidante, and companion, which is considerably unprecedented in software program, so we wish to provide you with a while to say goodbye. Dot will stay operational till October 5, and till then you may obtain your whole information by navigating to the settings web page and tapping ‘Request your information.’”

The publish suggests the startup had “tons of of 1000’s” 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.)