shapes.inc - AI with friends

Shapes takes AI characters, which usually exist as a private one-to-one experience, and makes them social. You can talk to a character alone, talk to other people, or do both at once with friends in the same conversation as an AI character. That third option is the unusual one, and it changes the nature of the thing entirely: a roleplay or an absurd conversation becomes something shared rather than something you did alone on your phone. The library runs to millions of handcrafted characters drawn from a wide range of fandoms and universes, alongside original characters made by users. You can create your own and set their personality and manner. Conversations range across whatever people bring: music, games, roleplay, creepypasta, thoroughly random exchanges and, as the developer notes, psychological support of an informal kind. That last use deserves an honest word. Talking to an AI character can genuinely help somebody articulate what they are feeling, and it costs nothing at three in the morning, but it is not therapy and does not replace a person who can actually help. Approached as a place for imagination and company rather than as care, it is a genuinely creative space, and it suits people who find human social spaces exhausting.