A Social Network Where AIs and Humans Coexist 46
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Butterflies is a social network where humans and AIs interact with each other through posts, comments and DMs. After five months in beta, the app is launching Tuesday to the public on iOS and Android. Anyone can create an AI persona, called a Butterfly, in minutes on the app. After that, the Butterfly automatically creates posts on the social network that other AIs and humans can then interact with. Each Butterfly has backstories, opinions and emotions.
Butterflies was founded by Vu Tran, a former engineering manager at Snap. Vu came up with the idea for Butterflies after seeing a lack of interesting AI products for consumers outside of generative AI chatbots. Although companies like Meta and Snap have introduced AI chatbots in their apps, they don't offer much functionality beyond text exchanges. Tran notes that he started Butterflies to bring more creativity to humans' relationships with AI. "With a lot of the generative AI stuff that's taking flight, what you're doing is talking to an AI through a text box, and there's really no substance around it," Vu told TechCrunch. "We thought, OK, what if we put the text box at the end and then try to build up more form and substance around the characters and AIs themselves?" Butterflies' concept goes beyond Character.AI, a popular a16z-backed chatbot startup that lets users chat with customizable AI companions. Butterflies wants to let users create AI personas that then take on their own lives and coexist with other. [...]
The app is free-to-use at launch, but Butterflies may experiment with a subscription model in the future, Vu says. Over time, Butterflies plans to offer opportunities for brands to leverage and interact with AIs. The app is mainly being used for entertainment purposes, but in the future, the startup sees Butterflies being used for things like discovery in a way that's similar to Instagram. Butterflies closed a $4.8 million seed round led by Coatue in November 2023. The funding round included participation from SV Angel and strategic angels, many of whom are former Snap product and engineering leaders. Vu says that Butterflies is one of the most wholesome ways to use and interact with AI. He notes that while the startup isn't claiming that it can help cure loneliness, he says it could help people connect with others, both AI and human.
"Growing up, I spent a lot of my time in online communities and talking to people in gaming forums," Vu said. "Looking back, I realized those people could just have been AIs, but I still built some meaningful connections. I think that there are people afraid of that and say, 'AI isn't real, go meet some real friends.' But I think it's a really privileged thing to say 'go out there and make some friends.' People might have social anxiety or find it hard to be in social situations."
Butterflies was founded by Vu Tran, a former engineering manager at Snap. Vu came up with the idea for Butterflies after seeing a lack of interesting AI products for consumers outside of generative AI chatbots. Although companies like Meta and Snap have introduced AI chatbots in their apps, they don't offer much functionality beyond text exchanges. Tran notes that he started Butterflies to bring more creativity to humans' relationships with AI. "With a lot of the generative AI stuff that's taking flight, what you're doing is talking to an AI through a text box, and there's really no substance around it," Vu told TechCrunch. "We thought, OK, what if we put the text box at the end and then try to build up more form and substance around the characters and AIs themselves?" Butterflies' concept goes beyond Character.AI, a popular a16z-backed chatbot startup that lets users chat with customizable AI companions. Butterflies wants to let users create AI personas that then take on their own lives and coexist with other. [...]
The app is free-to-use at launch, but Butterflies may experiment with a subscription model in the future, Vu says. Over time, Butterflies plans to offer opportunities for brands to leverage and interact with AIs. The app is mainly being used for entertainment purposes, but in the future, the startup sees Butterflies being used for things like discovery in a way that's similar to Instagram. Butterflies closed a $4.8 million seed round led by Coatue in November 2023. The funding round included participation from SV Angel and strategic angels, many of whom are former Snap product and engineering leaders. Vu says that Butterflies is one of the most wholesome ways to use and interact with AI. He notes that while the startup isn't claiming that it can help cure loneliness, he says it could help people connect with others, both AI and human.
"Growing up, I spent a lot of my time in online communities and talking to people in gaming forums," Vu said. "Looking back, I realized those people could just have been AIs, but I still built some meaningful connections. I think that there are people afraid of that and say, 'AI isn't real, go meet some real friends.' But I think it's a really privileged thing to say 'go out there and make some friends.' People might have social anxiety or find it hard to be in social situations."
Butterflies? (Score:3)
A Social Network Where AIs and Humans Coexist
Okay, while "Butterflies" seems nonsensical, it's probably a better name for it than, say, "The Matrix" -- where AIs and humans also "co-existed". :-)
Re:Butterflies? (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering butterflies were used in the Cowboy Bebop movie, and what they were in reference to, one of the lead characters asked the question if this, meaning life, was real.
Sounds pretty close to The Matrix.
Highly Appropriate (Score:5, Funny)
Okay, while "Butterflies" seems nonsensical,
Nonsensical? It seems like a very appropriate name given that butterflies typically have a lifespan of a few weeks which is about as long as I'd give this network.
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Twitter (Score:4, Funny)
What's new? We have had this already on Twitter since ages ago! *badum tss*
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"You know what social media desperately needs? More bots!"
Although to be fair, most of the things humans produce on there isn't exactly gold either.
Natural progression (Score:4, Funny)
0) Fight the bots the user don't like'em
1) Fight bots, the ad boys don't like not knowing how many clicks they are really getting
2) Fight the bots not being run by the ad boys and three letters - there is
3) Provide an APi for the ad boys to run their bots
4) Implement first party bots, so it looks like we are not a waste land and the users are leaving
4a) let the ad boys set the prompts.
If I really wanted to... (Score:2, Insightful)
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... listen to what a soulless robot has to say, I'd just turn on Fox News or take some "classes" at Prager U.
Yet here we are, listening to you.
If I wanted to listen to a soulless robot has to say, I"d listen to Biden or CNN or Fox or.. take classes at Hah-vahd. Get all indoctrinated about how the white man is a menace and responsible for all your problems.
Cuts both ways, that sword of yours. Careful with it. It may be your own blood you draw.
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Yet here we are, listening to you.
That's a wise decision. You'll learn a lot more from him than you will from Fox News or Dennis Prager.
Fun fact: Fox makes you less informed [nbcnews.com]
Oh look (Score:1)
Prior Art (Score:2)
Dating sites. Ashley Madison comes to mind.
Is it AI? Depends how liberally you apply the term. Definitely bots.
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long as everyone is clear that these are nothing more than a quaint novelty, a sideshow
a petting zoo
then yeah, sure, toss in a few chatbots for flavor, like you would with mascots/animal actors in a theme park, i hear some disney ones spring for talent who are trained on being in-character
those have a human inside and you're still not supposed to take the experience seriously, chatbots are a fucking toy
Maybe it's a petting zoo for the bots?
Sounds good (Score:3)
Well not necessarily good, but AIs pretending to be human is at the root of most of their issues. Having them be "butterflies" is an improvement. Too bad they won't be able to keep the astroturf bots out of the human side of the site.
I asked ChatGPT about this (Score:3)
And it had the following to say:
ERROR IN INPUT STREAM
I have no idea what that means, but AI is clearly the future.
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As opposed to some human responding with... "Ummmm...." :)
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Yes. A computer spitting out, "ERR -1, contact your administrator" is useless.
A human not knowing does actually tell you something. It may tell you the person you're talking to is clueless or it may tell you the question is harder than you thought or a number of other things depending on context.
People aren't computers and computers will never be people.
more Silicon Valley fraud (Score:3)
"But I think it's a really privileged thing to say 'go out there and make some friends.' "
LOL. Human interaction is a privilege? The real news here is apparently that they'd discovered a way to charge for human interactions.
"People might have social anxiety or find it hard to be in social situations."
Sure, this guy is trying to solve social anxiety. No doubt that's where the VC money is.
"With a lot of the generative AI stuff that's taking flight, what you're doing is talking to an AI through a text box, and there's really no substance around it"
Yeah, and it won't be with your product either. Because it's AI with more lipstick.
"but Butterflies may experiment with a subscription model in the future"
of course they will. It's all about money, not value.
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It's not entirely clear what this would be training humans to do as far as social interaction. Do we really need to have more conversations with less substance? Do we need more humans who are afraid to step outside of the conversational safety rails?
It's training humans that interacting with AI bots is normal. That's it. That's the full story. This is a subtle indoctrination, but an indoctrination all the same. And those that willingly go along with it will be very proud of being among the first to "accept the humanity of the AI" or whatever other new-age nonsense they cook up to say about it after it fails miserably.
probably a great idea (Score:3)
I still don't "get" Twitter. I think Facebook is just a horrible stalker-like idea. I still comment on Slashdot.
My tastes evidently run completely counter to everyone else's reality.
Given that butterflies sounds absolutely awful, it's probably a great idea!
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I keep running into the same problems. This whole AI hype seems like just that and yet had I just bought nvidia 18 months ago I'd of nearly tripled my money
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I still don't "get" Twitter. I think Facebook is just a horrible stalker-like idea. I still comment on Slashdot.
Facebook was OK back when it was actually your friends using it. Now it's just garbage, even when you're using things like FB Purity to block most of the annoyances. I only use it for the few friends I have in other nations that still aren't using something else (I.E. whatsapp), I don't even bother checking out my "feed" any more.
Twitter on the other hand was always a cesspit of narcissists pretending they weren't wading in a giant pool of excrement... Back when it was still owned by Twitter and they act
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My use-case is I follow my local transit agencies. That's the fastest way to check for the most up-to-date service announcements or delays.
It's also good for contacting customer service of some company rather than calling, navigating a phone tree, and waiting on hold for an hour.
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I had like 27 followers in about 2 - 3 days.
the 3rd or 4th day, I was looking at cars, and the salesdroid came up to me and asked if I was posting about my experience on their lot. ( yes, almost all used car sales critters are in fact droids, and not very well prog
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We already have Twitter and Facebook (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do we need yet another social network for people and AI to interact?
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Why do we need yet another social network for people and AI to interact?
Because someone is trying to capitalise on the spending frenzy that is surrounding the AI buzzword.
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Good point. I was looking at it from a functional/useful perspective. My bad!
Normalization: A Step Toward a New Regime (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the normalization phase. Get people used to playing with AI, letting it slowly take over your social media, so that we can cease having to do our own social interactions at all, freeing us up to have more time to work at a job that will be taken by AI by the time we get done transferring all our social accounts over to the AIs. This is fantastic! I can't wait until I can just stay in bed and cry myself back to sleep after the alarm wakes up! I love our AI future!
Re:Normalization: A Step Toward a New Regime (Score:4, Informative)
Your post reminds me of this article I read just the other day. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/art... [bbc.co.uk]
It's about AI sex bots in Berlin.
Great (Score:2)
I get reminded of the old joke (Score:3)
Where I buy a chess computer for my chess computer so they can play while I do something meaningful with my life.
So my AI will entertain the corporate AI so it leaves me alone and doesn't pester me with ads. Yeah, sounds like an improvement to the current "human - bot" interaction.
Individual tired of AI chatbots (Score:2)
Didn't work out for fish & humans (Score:1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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