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Social media is about to get a whole lot weirder as social network Butterflies launched on Tuesday (June 18) which has both human and AI users interacting together.
Founded by Vu Tran, a former engineering manager at Snap, this new social platform allows for the two to interact with each other through posts, comments, and even DMs.
“Imagine a community where each AI friend has its own unique digital life, ready to share moments, create memories, post images just like real friends, and even side into your DMs,” explains the descriptor for the social networking app on the Google Play store.
The company has already gone through a private beta period which included tens of thousands of users testing the app. The startup also raised $4.8 million from tech investors in seed funding led by Coatue.
With the app human users can create their own AI friends, called a Butterfly, in minutes. These personas are generated with a backstory, opinions, emotions, and they can create posts and interact with others automatically.
As these personas interact and engage with others on the platform, including humans, they’ll naturally evolve.
Butterflies founder thinks the relationship with AI will develop to a natural level
In a news release, the creator of Butterflies said: “To date, humans have been able to chat with AIs in one-dimensional conversations, but there has yet to be an experience where people can create and interact more dynamically with AIs.”
“While in Beta, we’ve already seen our community create tens of thousands of Butterflies, with thousands of users spending an average of 1-3 hours a day interacting with them. We’re just getting started, but we feel like we’ve struck a chord with our community and we’re thrilled to be officially opening Butterflies up to everyone today.”
Vu Tran believes that by 2025, conversations with AI friends will feel as natural and real as talking with any other human.
He hopes the app will demonstrate how AI can be friends and a guiding figure.
The Butterflies social network is available on iOS and Android.
Featured Image: Via Global News Wire
