Dot, an AI companion app that aimed to be a buddy and confidante, is shutting down, the corporate introduced on Friday. On a message revealed 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 knowledge.

Launched in 2024 by co-founders Sam Whitmore and former Apple designer Jason Yuan, Dot waded into what’s now turn out to be a extra controversial space for AI chatbots. The app they created was described as an AI “buddy and companion,” which might turn out to be extra customized to you and your pursuits over time with a purpose to provide recommendation, sympathy, and emotional assist.

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

Nonetheless, this will not be a secure space to spend money on as a smaller startup.

As AI know-how has turn out to be extra mainstream, there have been experiences 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 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 tackle whether or not these kinds of points had weighed on the founders’ minds. As a substitute, the transient submit solely notes that Whitmore and Yuan’s shared “Northstar” had diverged.

“Quite than compromise both imaginative and prescient, we’ve determined to go our separate methods and wind down operations,” the submit 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 possibly can obtain all your knowledge by navigating to the settings web page and tapping ‘Request your knowledge.’”

The submit suggests the startup had “a whole bunch of 1000’s” of customers, however knowledge from app intelligence supplier Appfigures sees solely 24,500 lifetime downloads on iOS since launching in June 2024. (There was no Android model.)