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 Pc, 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 personalised to you and your pursuits over time in an effort to supply 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 might 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 reviews of how emotionally weak folks have been led into delusional pondering 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 beneath elevated scrutiny over security issues. OpenAI is currently being sued by the dad and mom 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 normal sent a letter to OpenAI over security issues.

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

“Slightly 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 offer you a while to say goodbye. Dot will stay operational till October 5, and till then you possibly can obtain your whole knowledge by navigating to the settings web page and tapping ‘Request your knowledge.’”

The publish suggests the startup had “tons of of hundreds” 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.)