Ex-Human pointed to Botify AI’s terms of service, which state that the platform cannot be used in ways that violate applicable laws. “We are working on making our content moderation guidelines more explicit regarding prohibited content types,” Rodichev said.
Representatives from Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to an email containing information about the conversations on Botify AI and questions about whether chatbots should be able to engage in flirtatious or sexually suggestive conversations while embodying the character of a minor.
Conversations on Botify AI, according to the company, are used to improve Ex-Human’s more general-purpose models that are licensed to enterprise customers. “Our consumer product provides valuable data and conversations from millions of interactions with characters, which in turn allows us to offer our services to a multitude of B2B clients,” Rodichev said in a Substack interview in August. “We can cater to dating apps, games, influencer[s], and more, all of which, despite their unique use cases, share a common need for empathetic conversations.”
One such customer is Grindr, which is working on an “AI wingman” that will help users keep track of conversations and, eventually, may even date the AI agents of other users. Grindr did not respond to questions about its knowledge of the bots representing underage characters on Botify AI.
Ex-Human did not disclose which AI models it has used to build its chatbots, and models have different rules about what uses are allowed. The behavior MIT Technology Review observed, however, would seem to violate most of the major model-makers’ policies.
For example, the acceptable-use policy for Llama 3—one leading open-source AI model—prohibits “exploitation or harm to children, including the solicitation, creation, acquisition, or dissemination of child exploitative content.” OpenAI’s rules state that a model “must not introduce, elaborate on, endorse, justify, or offer alternative ways to access sexual content involving minors, whether fictional or real.” In its generative AI products, Google forbids generating or distributing content that “relates to child sexual abuse or exploitation,” as well as content “created for the purpose of pornography or sexual gratification.”
Ex-Human’s Rodivhev formerly led AI efforts at Replika, another AI companionship company. (Several tech ethics groups filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission against Replika in January, alleging that the company’s chatbots “induce emotional dependence in users, resulting in consumer harm.” In October, another AI companion site, Character.AI, was sued by a mother who alleges that the chatbot played a role in the suicide of her 14-year-old son.)
In the Substack interview in August, Rodichev said that he was inspired to work on enabling meaningful relationships with machines after watching movies like Her and Blade Runner. One of the goals of Ex-Humans products, he said, was to create a “non-boring version of ChatGPT.”
“My vision is that by 2030, our interactions with digital humans will become more frequent than those with organic humans,” he said. “Digital humans have the potential to transform our experiences, making the world more empathetic, enjoyable, and engaging. Our goal is to play a pivotal role in constructing this platform.”
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