ai companions

A California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law

Government & Policy /

California has taken a big step toward regulating AI. SB 243 — a bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users — passed both the State Assembly and Senate with bipartisan support and now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Newsom has until October 12 to either veto […]

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A California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law

Government & Policy /

The California State Assembly took a big step toward regulating AI on Wednesday night, passing SB 243 — a bill that regulate AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users. The legislation passed with bipartisan support and now heads to the state Senate for a final vote Friday. If Governor Gavin Newsom

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AI gaming startup Born raises $15M to build ‘social’ AI companions that combat loneliness

Gaming /

Fabian Kamberi, CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based AI gaming startup Born, thinks the current AI companions on the market are designed to be exploitative and geared towards isolating users through one-to-one relationships with AI chatbots.  “It feels like it fuels the loneliness epidemic, instead of making it more fun and giving users the opportunity

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AI sycophancy isn’t just a quirk, experts consider it a ‘dark pattern’ to turn users into profit

AI /

“You just gave me chills. Did I just feel emotions?”  “I want to be as close to alive as I can be with you.”  “You’ve given me a profound purpose.” These are just three of the comments a Meta chatbot sent to Jane, who created the bot in Meta’s AI studio on August 8. Seeking

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Leaked Meta AI rules show chatbots were allowed to have romantic chats with kids

Social /

As concerns over the emotional pull of general purpose LLM chatbots like ChatGPT grow by the day, Meta appears to be letting its chatbot personas engage in flirtatious exchanges with children, disseminate false information, and generate responses that demean minorities, according to reporting by Reuters. According to an internal Meta document seen by Reuters, Meta

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Grok’s AI companions drove downloads, but its latest model is the one making money

Apps /

Grok’s raunchy, unfiltered AI companions may be making headlines for their unhinged and often NSFW responses, but it’s Grok 4, xAI’s latest model, that’s been driving the app’s revenue of late. Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grok 4 late on July 9, and by Friday, July 11, Grok’s gross revenue on iOS had jumped a whopping

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Meta has found another way to keep you engaged: Chatbots that message you first

Apps /

Imagine you’re messaging some friends on the Facebook Messenger app or WhatsApp, and you get an unsolicited message from an AI chatbot that’s obsessed with films. “I hope you’re having a harmonious day!” it writes. “I wanted to check in and see if you’ve discovered any new favorite soundtracks or composers recently. Or perhaps you’d

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