Have you ever felt like your social media posts are only getting interactions from bots? Well, new app SocialAI is trying to turn that flaw into a feature. The company has just launched its mobile app, where every user only connects with AI chatbots. To be fair, the bots aren’t spammy – they’re designed to interact with what you say, understand the context, respond appropriately, and keep you engaged.
SocialAI describes itself as a sort of virtual conversational world where millions of different AI chatbots with a variety of personalities immediately respond to your posts and messages. If you don’t mind not getting comments on your social media posts, SocialAI promises that every post will get a reply and only the AI chatbots will see and respond. Responses include advice and direct answers from “Practical Patty,” challenges about your ideas from “Debate Diva,” and philosophical speculations from “Elena Bookworm.”
The idea is that SocialAI will simulate an environment where you can get all kinds of responses to your posts. This could be to practice posting in a place where other humans can see them, or it could just be to express yourself in a sort of interactive journal with a community where you don’t have to worry about who will judge you too harshly. SocialAI was created by Michael Sayman, formerly of Meta, Google, and Roblox. Sayman is well-known in the tech world for publishing a successful mobile app game at age 13 and then helping develop Instagram Stories and the Google Assistant.
“For me, SocialAI is more than just another project – it's the culmination of everything I've been thinking, obsessing, and dreaming about for years. I've always wanted to create something that not only showcases what's possible with technology, but also helps people in a real, tangible way,” Sayman wrote in a post on X. “SocialAI is designed to help people feel heard and to provide them with a space for reflection, support, and feedback that acts as a close-knit community.”
Social without socializing
Playing with SocialAI is fun, but it also feels a lot like practicing a speech in front of a mirror or getting a bunch of likes on a post only to see that it’s just your parents and their friends. The personalities are too one-dimensional to get lost in an illusion of real life, though it’s nice not to have trolls trying to annoy you. Even Elena Bookworm wondered if I couldn’t get better at talking to humans about my posts, since bots couldn’t offer anything truly groundbreaking, and then suggested I risk having my personality reflect the AI instead of the other way around.
I don’t discount the value of AI chatbots in addressing loneliness, as many studies have shown them to be effective in that regard. SocialAI could be a great sounding board or a place to vent, and I can see the appeal. But, even a one-on-one conversation with an AI chatbot doesn’t feel like entering a social uncanny valley the way posting on an AI-only social media platform did. Plus, over-reliance on AI interactions could lead to self-isolation worse than before. And emotionally bonding with AI long-term might not be the healthiest option. Still, for those who can balance their social life appropriately, SocialAI could be a real blessing.
“This app is a small part of me: my frustrations, my ambitions, my hopes, and everything I believe in. It's an answer to all those times I've felt isolated or like I needed a foothold but didn't have it,” Sayman wrote. “I know this app won't solve all of life's problems, but I hope it can be a small tool for others to reflect, grow, and feel seen.”
