Today, the creators of the much-loved iPhone customization app Brass, StickerHub, and others have released an AI chat app called Superchat. This iOS-only app allows users to converse with virtual characters driven by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology.
The app stands apart from conventional ChatGPT and other AI chat applications because its characters allow users to interact with Superchat’s Artificial Intelligence features.
Notable historical figures such as Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Cleopatra, and Neil Armstrong are among the characters featured, as well as those from public domain works like Snow White or Medusa and classic stories like Sherlock Holmes. Additionally, people from various professions, including gardeners, chefs, and therapists, are included.
Gorilla Technologies has developed its characters, the most popular being its ChatGPT assistant Aria. This chatbot assists users in everyday activities, such as composing emails or providing marketing advice.
Gorilla Technologies CEO Guglielmo Faglioni says:
“The goal is to make AI technology accessible to everyone, not just people who know how to write great prompts,”
“And we think this app will be a great tool for kids who want to learn more about historical figures by chatting to cool characters like Shakespeare.”
He describes the app as structured like a messaging app, which allows users to converse with numerous AI chatbots simultaneously. The AIs are operated utilizing OpenAI technologies, particularly GPT-3.5-turbo. Additionally, Midjourney was utilized to create the artwork for the characters.
A selection of characters can be downloaded for free with the app, but if you want to access them, you’ll need to pay a premium subscription. Unfortunately, this may not be worth it as similar AI chat experiences are available free of charge elsewhere. The least expensive payment plan offered by the app is $1.35 per week if paid annually – that works out to around $70 a year.
At $6.99 per week, the weekly subscription may be too expensive for children to purchase, making it inaccessible to that age group. This pricing strategy attracts people who want to try out the app on a short-term basis rather than commit long-term by paying upfront for an entire year.
OpenAI’s APIs have associated costs, and their prices are intended to cover these. Moreover, the company has enabled Family Sharing, so families with multiple users can all use one subscription.
Still, it’s an interesting concept to put a face on an AI and have it interact in the style of their character.
Although the characters are initially introduced as their respective personas, there could be more to them than that. It would benefit the characters’ interactions to include speech patterns that accurately reflect who they are meant to represent.
An example is that Dracula did not sound like you would expect, using a Bwhahaha. He replied as any other chatbot AI would. Characters like Zeus were more successful; when asked a science question about lightning, he discussed how it works in the natural world and then told us he had the power to create it himself.
The characters appear to possess a knowledge of past events, which they sometimes mention in their dialogue, yet their manner of speaking is akin to a generic AI.
Poe, the chatbot app from Quora, offers a much more stimulating experience than Superchat. Its users now have the option to create their bots using prompts. This feature has been used for various purposes, including creating a pirate chatbot that speaks like an actual pirate with phrases such as “Avast, ye scurvy dog! What be yer business?” rather than the generic “How can I help you?”.
Gorilla Technologies has recently joined the trend of utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a character or avatar with which people can interact. The company strives to make the characters speak more like their persona.
In the autumn of last year, Google purchased AI avatar business Alter for a hundred million dollars. At the same time, Neosapience, a Korean startup, garnered twelve and a half million dollars to finance its synthetic voice and video platform – Typecast. This enables users to transform the text into videos.
But D-ID is working in a space closer to what Superchat is attempting with its new tech that gives both a face and a voice to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, its web app is much more evolved, allowing users to talk face-to-face with a photorealistic AI.
Meta mentioned they are exploring using AI chats in Messenger and WhatsApp, while Discord currently provides a bot with similar characteristics to ChatGPT.
Superchat is seeking to capitalize on the buzz around AI chatbots, a sector that has experienced an increase of more than 4,000% in in-app user spending since March, reaching almost $3 million? The 10 most popular AI mobile applications already generated revenue of over $14 million as of last month.
OpenAI’s chatbots appear more approachable for a younger audience due to their conversational-like experience, as opposed to navigating their website.
Superchat’s AI chatbot is a good example of how AI technology can create engaging and educational user experiences. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more exciting and innovative applications in the future.
Source: TechCrunch
