How to make an AI friend: the top chatbots for communication

Artificial intelligence has become integral to our world and is no longer breaking news!

Neural networks are now employed for various aims, including automating routine tasks, generating creative ideas, producing digital art, and creating amusing images. Furthermore, chatbots have evolved to be personal assistants and loyal companions. The latest neural networks can actively engage in dialogue, emulate human communication, gauge the user's mood, provide advice, and suggest new conversation topics. In this selection, we shall introduce you to chatbots that can help you develop friendly (and not just) relationships!

ChatGPT

This versatile chatbot can manage numerous tasks. It produces various types of content, including poems, computer code, and reports, and generates to-do lists, guides, checklists, and more. Its underlying neural network employs the GPT language model developed by OpenAI, a leading research organization in the industry.

GPT can adapt its communication style to suit your preferences, extending beyond a neutral, calm tone. For example, you can request the chatbot to assume a character and express themselves in that persona, take on the role of a psychologist, engage in a heart-to-heart conversation like a friend, or provide advice. ChatGPT genuinely listens, helping you manage stress, and offers a variety of techniques for meditation and relaxation.

Also, with GPT, you can partake in various intellectual games and quizzes, brainstorm unique recipes to try, share jokes, learn foreign languages, and discuss the books you've read or the new films you've watched. In summary, it serves as an excellent conversational partner. By specifying the type of feedback you wish to receive and asking the chatbot to talk to you using a particular tone, you can request it to entertain you or, conversely, to help alleviate anxiety and provide relief.

The latest version, GPT-4, costs $20 per month. However, you can still use the previous version, GPT-3.5, for free, providing a similar functionality level.

YouChat

This platform is built on artificial intelligence and designed to help users comprehensively. The chatbot enables effortless searches for hard-to-find and exclusive information. It can also summarise extensive materials, simplify them for better understanding, answer any questions, and, importantly, provide links to original sources alongside all search results.

The Build function offers enhanced opportunities for not only receiving information but also exchanging it. With this feature, you can create your very own virtual assistant. All you need to do is provide a detailed request outlining the tasks you want your AI assistant to handle and specify its character traits, habits, worldview, and values. The more precise your description, the more vividly and accurately YouChat will reproduce it. As you interact with your assistant, it will adhere to the communication norms and behaviors you established from the beginning. Furthermore, the creators ensure that you can communicate with your creation in any language.

Register on the website to use the Build function and create a new virtual friend. YouChat offers its services at no cost, but you might find the paid subscription beneficial if you frequently use neural networks. This subscription significantly enhances your capabilities and is available for $15 per month.

Character AI

This unique service presents fresh opportunities for all users, enabling you to engage with characters from your favorite films, literature, and other pop culture icons. Character AI showcases a variety of chatbots that embody both iconic and not just fictional characters.

With Character AI, you can engage in philosophical discussions with Aristotle or Plato, explore scientific discoveries alongside Charles Darwin, brainstorm innovations with Elon Musk, learn about the future from Nostradamus, or debate with Abraham Lincoln. Furthermore, you can request a magic spell from a Harry Potter character, seek assistance from superheroes, or even profess your love to Brad Pitt.

Even if you don't find a character you like (which is unlikely!), the platform offers many useful additional features. For instance, the neural network can act as your foreign language teacher and assist in planning trips anywhere in the world. It can also help you excel in interviews, secure your dream job, write a story or any other creative text, and generate original ideas.

You can engage with the chatbot through voice messages, and the virtual character's voice can be customised for more relaxed interaction. Even if your conversation reaches a dead end, the chatbot will proactively pose new questions, touching on topics that interest you and guiding the dialogue. Likewise, it remembers everything you share with it, making it easy to generate new questions for discussions and debates to keep you engaged.

Furthermore, with Character AI, you can engage in various thought-provoking and enjoyable games, conquer quests and puzzles, unravel intricate mysteries, and embark on adventures through virtual environments. The realm of AI technology is limitless, providing everyday users endless possibilities to immerse themselves in this captivating, cutting-edge, and rapidly evolving domain! Seize this opportunity. Character AI is free, while the premium version costs $10 each month, granting all registered users access to these features.

Replika

This service features visual and thematic similarities to the popular life simulator, The Sims. However, Replika is uniquely crafted to provide emotional and psychological support to users, addressing their communication needs. In Replika, you can create your friend, personalize their appearance and traits, decorate your home, shop, acquire new skills, and engage in various activities just as you would in real life.

The free version of the platform permits users to communicate solely through text messages in chat with other virtual world inhabitants. A paid subscription ($20 per month) unlocks voice input features and increases the chatbot's memory, enabling it to retain more information about the real user. This enhanced memory allows the chatbot to better adapt to the user's interests, requests, and preferences.

Chai

Chai is yet another platform akin to Character AI and Replika. On Chai, users can create their own characters that replicate pop culture personalities and interact with others. For example, one of the most popular chatbots is Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls, with nearly a million people already engaging with him. Conversations with any character are natural, realistic, and relaxed, thanks to Chai's extensive knowledge base encompassing both pop culture and everyday life.

However, there is a significant drawback: the chatbot quickly forgets previous conversations, which leads to repetition. As a result, users may become bored after a few sessions. Despite this, it is worth exploring interesting topics with the chatbot, and it is completely free to use. While there is a limit on communication, it does not exhaust quickly, allowing you to enjoy a conversation with Chai until the neural network starts repeating.

Talkie

This chatbot is designed for romantic interactions. With Talkie, you can explore various scenarios; however, registration on the site is required to create your own character. Once registered, you can access the service free of charge. Start by outlining your character, including their name and gender, a brief biography (which can be entirely fictional), and a description of their traits, beliefs, and habits.

All other virtual characters come with their own biographies and tales. You may encounter them anywhere – in a café, at the gym, in the neighborhood, or even bump into them at a shop. Your relationships evolve based on your character's actions and interactions with a virtual partner (or even multiple partners). You can communicate through text or voice messages. There's no need to worry about conversations fizzling out or ending abruptly – Talkie offers various scenarios for role-playing romantic games, ensuring you remain engaged and entertained.

Paradot

This is another opportunity to engage with virtual characters. This chatbot has been specifically designed to cultivate emotional connections with users seeking communication and companionship.

The Paradot neural network acts as a virtual psychologist, assisting you in reducing anxiety, relaxing, and achieving inner balance. It listens, provides support, offers advice, calms your mind, and helps articulate and guide your emotions appropriately. This functionality constitutes just one of Paradot's various modes. Furthermore, the chatbot can be set up for intellectual and role-playing games, quests, and puzzles. For instance, it enables users to embark on virtual adventures across diverse locations, from real-world sites to imaginative cities of the future, as well as realms inspired by literature or films. However, access to these features necessitates a paid subscription, starting at $10 monthly.

Poe

This platform provides access to a range of chatbots based on various language models, including GPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. Within Poe's special collection, you will discover ready-made characters for role-playing games, as well as assistants for tasks such as learning a foreign language or cooking. Likewise, the platform includes personal psychologists and fitness trainers.

However, the key advantage of the Poe service lies in its diverse range of chatbot language models. Put simply, you can utilize several neural networks simultaneously to perform various tasks—be it communication, automating routine activities, completing homework, writing reports, and more. This approach allows you to identify which chatbots excel at particular tasks and assign others accordingly.

Poe allows you to create and customize your character to suit your needs. You can provide a brief prompt with each request, enabling the AI to adapt accurately to your situation. Although a free version is available, the most captivating features are accessible through a paid subscription, starting at $19 per month.

You can now trust that neural networks are proficient not only at handling mundane tasks but also in areas such as communication, gaming, skill acquisition, and experimentation! Chatbots have become adept at simulating human dialogue, engaging users on a wide range of subjects—from modern art to personality psychology—and adapting to individual preferences to enhance relaxation. With these advancements, virtual chatbots can function as friends, assistants, and even psychologists—all in the realm of virtual chatbots!