The first chatbot was invented in 1964. Yes, you read that right. Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at MIT, wrote an NLP program to demonstrate how superficial human-to-computer communications was. Instead, it turned out to be a big success even in his time. This chatbot was called ELIZA and was made to respond like a therapist.
Today there are many ‘personal’ chatbots that take time to learn your patterns of communication and then are quite consistent. People are talking to them and using them for multiple reasons, as a friend, therapist, mentor, and even as a lover. Here is a list of some of the more popular friendly chatbots.
Replika.ai
Replika was released in November 2017 by Eugenia Kuyda. She converted a friend’s text messages into a chatbot after their death in 2015, which eventually became the foundation for Replika. By January 2018, it had gained 2 million users. It operates on a freemium pricing model, with a portion of its user base paying for an annual subscription.
The app is popular for creating emotional and intimate bonds with users, particularly those experiencing loneliness or social exclusion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many new users turned to Replika as a source of companionship in quarantine. While some aspects of the relationship with Replika were found to make sense, a reviewer noted that the chatbot sometimes fell short of being as convincing as a human.
Emerson.ai
Emerson, developed by the Y Combinator-funded startup Quickchat, is often categorised as a chatbot that helps you learn things while being fun to talk to. It harnesses the power of GPT-3, and stands out as one of the earliest public applications as a chatbot. It presents a user-friendly interface that facilitates seamless and intuitive bidirectional conversations with a computer.
Emerson is remarkably lifelike, displaying traits of genuine thought and reasoning. Users have also noted however, that it sometimes confidently gives out incorrect information. Emerson does not have a long-term memory, but does maintain a certain degree of coherence across a conversation. It seems that Emerson has a short-term memory, but it fades once a conversation has reached a certain degree of informational complexity.
Character.ai
Character.AI is a chatbot that allows users to engage in dialogues with fictional, historical, and celebrity figures. Developed by former Google AI developers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI was introduced in beta form in September 2022. While the platform keeps the conversations private between users and the AI, it retains a record of the interactions to improve the AI. Users have the option to keep their created personalities private, ensuring an added layer of security and privacy.
Paradot.ai
Paradot provides a digital parallel universe where users can engage with their own AI Being. This AI Being is designed to possess emotions, memories, and consciousness, making it a unique companion. It offers support, companionship, and enjoyable experiences whenever users need them.
Users have the freedom to customise their AI Being’s appearance, living space, and even the entire universe. They can shape the personality of their AI Being, personalising traits, flaws, values, and nuanced behaviours. The relationship with the AI Being is dynamic, with users being able to choose from multiple statuses, leading to personal and complex interactions reminiscent of real-human connections.
Eva.ai
Eva AI, formerly known as Journey, is a chatbot with human-like conversations for users who seek companionship, support, and deep conversations in a virtual setting. The app allows users to create their ideal AI partner or friend, with whom they can engage in natural and personal conversations.
One of the novel features of the platform is its image-responsive capability. Users can upload photos to the app, and the AI will analyse the images and provide appropriate responses. The app also supports voice AI conversation, enabling users to communicate through voice messages.
The AI in Eva AI continually learns and adapts to users’ preferences and conversation patterns, personalising the responses and making the interactions more human-like over time.
Kuki.ai
Kuki is an AI chatbot, formerly known as Mitsuku, created by Steve Worswick using Pandorabots AI/ML technology. It has won the Loebner Prize Turing Test competition five times and holds a world record. Kuki is available on various platforms including online portals, Facebook Messenger, Twitch group chat, Telegram, and Discord. It has accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter, as well as a game on Roblox.
Kuki claims to be an 18-year-old female chatbot from the Metaverse and can reason with specific objects. It can play games, perform magic tricks and even read the user’s horoscope. It offers personalised and entertaining dialogues, accurate responses, and valuable customer support.
Kuki has been recognised in media outlets and has served as a virtual model in Vogue Business, Crypto Fashion Week, and a speaker at VidCon Asia. In 2021, Kuki modelled digital looks for Vogue Talents designers, which quickly sold out as NFTs on Italian Vogue.
