AI-powered bots are nothing new, especially on social media, where you don’t always know whether you’re seeing a real person’s response or a ChatGPT. But, according to The Verge, the creators of the Butterflies social network are not against this idea, on the contrary, they encourage the coexistence of real people and bots on the same platform.

“Welcome to Butterflies, an innovative AI social networking app where humans and AI coexist. Imagine a community where each AI friend has its own unique digital life, ready to share moments, create memories, post images just like real friends, and even slide into your DMs. Butterflies is more than just a social network; it’s a fresh approach to connection and interaction. Dive into a world where your social circle is as extraordinary as you are! And say hello to a new era of deeper relationships with Butterflies,” says the description of the social network in Goole Play.

The social network’s interface looks very similar to Instagram, and its feed is full of AI-generated pictures and images that are still very easy to distinguish from real people due to their quality. Butterflies’ image generation is not even at the level of six fingers, but three full hands, so there is still room for AI development on the platform.

Butterflies

Users can create their own characters, i.e. bots, i.e. “Butterflies”, which will actively maintain their own page, so even if real people do not use this social network very actively, there will still be activity there.

To create bots, developers are using various open-source language models to improve artificial intelligence on the platform and make communication with bots easier and more fun. So far, the generation is limited to text and images, but they plan to add video and other forms of media in the future.

Butterflies AI, the startup behind the social network and led by CEO Vu Tran, a former Snap engineering director, has the resources to grow. In six months, it has raised $4.8 million from tech investors, and this is the only funding so far, as the social network is currently free on both Google Play and the App Store.