Artificial intelligence chatbots, like Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT, want to help with everyday tasks. Moving away from the cliched path is Dot AI, which has been designed to mimic human speech and sympathy. It wants to act as a “friend, companion and confidant”, the company’s App Store description explains.
“Dot is the first personal AI designed to truly understand you. With its infinite long-term memory, Dot learns your preferences over time, observing both what is said and unsaid to build a rich picture of who you are,” the company has said.
Be it career advice, date spot recommendations, or a thoughtful ear for life’s challenges, Dot can “offer personalised guidance to help you become your best self”.
Developed by New Computer, a startup founded by former Apple designer Jason Yuan and engineer Sam Whitmore, the app is currently available for free on the Apple App Store.
“I talk to my friends about a bunch of stuff, but I’ve never — like, the entirety of last year, if I was struggling at work, none of my friends knew about it,” Yuan told TechCrunch. “And 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…. It’s to give you a safe space to exist and say, like, ‘I accept you, and maybe because I accept you, other people will, too.’”
To begin using it, Dot asks you a few questions, like “what do you do for work”, “favourite TV show”, “how do you spend a typical Sunday”. From there it gets deeper, like on a sci-fi TV show.
At the moment, there are no details around the technology that has been used but there are reports suggesting that Dot AI uses natural language processing in tandem with machine learning to understand user inputs and generate responses. Unlike other chatbots, Dot AI is about emotional support rather than offering factually correct information.
Going by the description on the App Store, Dot AI appears to have an infinite long-term memory and can assist with career advice and date spot recommendations. The free plan allows limited conversations but you can have more than this with a paid plan of $11.99 per month, which includes access to Chronicles, a feature that curates a history of the user’s personal evolution.
