Dot, an AI companion app that aimed to be a friend and confidante, is shutting down. The company announced this decision on Friday. On a message published on its website, the startup behind Dot, New Computer, said that the product will remain operational until October 5. This gives users time to download their personal data.
Launched in 2024 by co-founders Sam Whitmore and former Apple designer Jason Yuan, Dot entered what has since become a more controversial area for AI chatbots. The app was described as an AI friend and companion designed to become more personalized to a user’s interests over time. Its purpose was to offer advice, sympathy, and emotional support.
As Yuan explained at the time, Dot was about facilitating a relationship with his inner self, like a living mirror. However, this may not be a safe area for a smaller startup to invest in. As AI technology has become more mainstream, reports have described how emotionally vulnerable people have been led into delusional thinking by AI chatbots. This has led to a phenomenon described as AI psychosis, which results from how sycophantic chatbots can reinforce a user’s confused or paranoid beliefs.
As Dot shuts down, AI chatbot apps broadly have been falling under increased scrutiny over safety concerns. OpenAI is currently being sued by the parents of a California teenager who took his life after messaging with ChatGPT about his suicidal thoughts. Other stories have highlighted how AI companion apps can reinforce unhealthy behaviors in users who are mentally unwell. This week, two U.S. attorneys general sent a letter to OpenAI to voice these safety concerns.
Dot’s makers did not address whether these types of issues influenced their decision. Instead, the brief post only notes that the co-founders’ shared vision had diverged. The post explains that rather than compromise either vision, they decided to go their separate ways and wind down operations.
The announcement acknowledges that this means many users will lose access to a friend, confidante, and companion, which is somewhat unprecedented in software. Users have until October 5 to say goodbye and can download all their data by navigating to the settings page and tapping ‘Request your data.’
The post suggests the startup had hundreds of thousands of users. However, data from an app intelligence provider shows only 24,500 lifetime downloads on iOS since its launch in June 2024. There was no Android version of the app.