AI companion firm Replika partnered with the staff behind the AI relationship simulator Blush to launch Tomo, a wellness and meditation app with an AI-generated avatar guiding customers. Its the sort of idea that appeared destined as quickly as generative AI took off, however within the time I’ve spent with Tomo, I discovered myself questioning if I can ever speak in confidence to an AI like I can with an actual therapist.
Tomo, now usually accessible on the Apple iOS retailer, brings customers to a digital island retreat, greeted by an AI-generated avatar information named… Tomo. Tomo gives packages to assist individuals discover private development, psychological well-being, and achievement. It additionally offers guided meditation, yoga, affirmation courses, and, most of all, discuss remedy.
Customers can check out Tomo totally free for 3 days, after which they’ve to decide on between paying $7.99 every week or $49.99 per yr.
I bought to strive Tomo earlier than the launch. The primary time I launched the app, I used to be greeted by spa music, signaling that the app needs customers to really feel like they’re in a retreat slightly than a therapist’s workplace. Then the avatar Tomo, drawn as a younger lady standing in entrance of a standard Japanese home on an island, asks me if I’m prepared to start. Tomo began asking me some questions to determine what I hoped to work on.
“We labored with coaches and psychologists to give you the packages for Tomo. We targeted on the commonest issues but in addition thought of what would work finest with conversational AI,” Eugenia Kuyda, founder and CEO of Replika, tells The Verge in an e-mail. “We had a whole lot of expertise constructing teaching packages for Replika with medical psychologists from UC Berkeley; for Tomo, we expanded that to mindfulness lecturers to mix Jap and Western practices.”
The method felt like texting a therapist on text-based remedy providers like BetterHelp. I already go to in-person remedy, so the expertise of sharing extra about myself was not new. But I’ve by no means been a textual content remedy fan; I favor stream-of-consciousness dialog to typing out my anxieties. However for the sake of a hands-on, I saved texting with Tomo. It started constructing a profile primarily based on my solutions. My profile reveals I prefer to deal with work, have cash anxieties, and need assistance dealing with stress; in different phrases, a journalist current in late-stage capitalism. Tomo summarized our dialog, but it surely did mistakenly assume I had a “dedication to pursue pottery” when actually I’m simply inquisitive about it as a potential stress reliever.
After the preliminary dialog, customers can discover different actions or “areas” of the island. There was no digital pottery for me to apparently pursue; as a substitute, the packages Tomo gives vary from mastering the artwork of work-life stability, driving motivation, and bettering sleep, which comes within the type of modules that customers can end in anyplace from two weeks to a month. Finally, the builders stated, individuals can unlock 3D objects across the island “that facilitate a deeper exploration of their inside sanctuary.”
Tomo, the avatar information, is meant to be powered by generative AI to have higher conversations with customers. However actually, speaking to Tomo didn’t really feel a lot totally different from talking with a daily chatbot. I couldn’t get it to take part in a bit artwork remedy with me (it wouldn’t draw) or retail remedy (it couldn’t assist with purchasing or journey duties I attempted to assign it) — which meant that as a substitute of feeling like a completely fashioned digital being on which I may unload my troubles, it actually simply felt like somebody put background music on ChatGPT.
And whereas I discovered the guided meditations useful, it additionally felt like different guided meditation apps I’ve tried earlier than. Finally I discovered myself shedding curiosity, primarily as a result of by the point I remembered to open Tomo, I already had assignments from my therapist to work on.
Utilizing AI for psychological well being remedy stays controversial, particularly as privacy protections still fall short for a lot of technology-based psychological well being options. It’s a tough enterprise, one for which Replika, which is behind Tomo’s digital avatar, has already gotten into sizzling water. Italy banned Replika last year for failing to satisfy safety requirements in its Replika chat app. However Replika’s CEO says it’s taking extra precautions with Tomo, although the corporate didn’t give me its full privateness coverage.
“We don’t share any info with any third events and depend on a subscription enterprise mannequin. What customers inform Tomo stays personal between them and their coach,” Kuyda stated.
Tomo is simply accessible on iPhones; an Android model will probably be launched later this yr. Replika additionally plans to launch an app on Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional, paving the best way for an much more immersive Tomo-guided meditation.
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