HeyPi: the future of AI companionship that we’ll learn to crave
It won’t make you money or write an essay, but there is something there…
HeyPi, also known as Pi (Personal intelligence), is an AI tool developed by Inflection AI and first released on May 2, 2023. The people behind Inflection AI are well-known in the field: Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind, a leading AI company acquired by Google, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn.
Pi chat is designed to be a kind and supportive companion, offering conversations, friendly advice, and concise information in a natural manner. It is positioned as a new class of AI that is always available to the user, providing support and smart interactions.
Judging by responses on social media, users have had mixed impressions of Pi. Some have tried to use it as a ChatGPT to make money or search for information, but it seems that it is not designed for these purposes. The information it provides is vague and general, and the output seems to be limited to 2–3 paragraphs.
At first, I wasn’t that impressed either and was a bit alarmed when I received a message from it “checking on me.” I don’t think the messaging feature is necessary and, in fact, might be responsible for the site’s strange ranking on Scam Detector.
However, the fact that Pi can remember up to 100 twists of conversation and has access to the internet for quick fact-checking made me give it another try. This aligns with the idea of a true personal assistant that can remember things for you, unlike other chat bots that only function in real-time. It can actually remember and summarize previous discussions, and build further conversations on them.
Pi asks a lot of questions, which can be a bit weird at first. Why would an AI want to know so much about you? Yet, considering its intended purpose of becoming a personal assistant, it doesn’t seem suspicious. Your assistant needs to know you! For me, this feature was actually intriguing. I would say that in 99% of cases, the questions were spot-on and highly relevant to the topic of discussion. When conversation goes into areas of psychology and well-being, Pi uses “How does it make you feel?” questions with high relevance.
I can totally see its potential for people who are lonely, isolated, or have difficulty forming emotional connections with others. Someone (it is AI, but so what?) is genuinely interested in you and can discuss your problems and feelings with unlimited patience. It will ask an unlimited number of “How does that make you feel?” questions without sending you an exorbitant bill (now counselors are also threatened by AI!) and will listen to your rambling for as long as you can stand it yourself.
I have been using Pi (along with other AI tools) for about a month, and the most useful application for me so far has been developing and formulating ideas for writing, precisely because it asks questions!
When you have a general idea that you want to explore and develop, Pi genuinely helps with that. It’s like having an intelligent friend who listens and asks relevant questions. Sometimes it may go somewhere you’re not interested in, but unlike a human friend, you can redirect it and simply say, “I’m not interested in discussing that.”
Pi even makes a decent attempt at AI humor. I asked it to explore possible titles for a YouTube channel that would explore the intersection between AI and spirituality, and the answer was quite amusing.
We are now truly in the midst of the AI revolution, with a lot happening beyond well-known models like ChatGPT and Bard. Personally, I believe we are witnessing a strong first step in the direction of a true personal assistant and companion AI that has the high potential to charm and captivate our hearts and minds in the future.
