AI Relationship Coach Amorai Falls Short in Providing Clear Guidance and Answers to Complex Questions
Building relationships can be challenging, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it even tougher for many people. Research has shown a significant increase in
====================================================
The Challenge of Combating Loneliness
Building and maintaining relationships is hard, and COVID-19 has made it even more challenging. Multiple studies have shown that adults have become increasingly lonely since the start of the pandemic.
The Rise of Tech Solutions
Founders are trying to find tech solutions to combat loneliness. There are many startups looking to address this issue, including senior-focused ElliQ and Replika, which creates an AI companion, and Inflection AI’s Pi, an emotional support bot.
A New Entrant: Amorai
A newer entrant in the space is Amorai, a startup that has built an AI relationship coach to help people grow and foster real-life connections by offering advice and answers to relationship questions. The company was founded by former Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg and was incubated in Andrew Ng’s AI Fund.
Rapid Funding
The company just raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding that took only 24 hours to raise, according to Nyborg in a recent interview with Vox’s Recode Media podcast. While combating loneliness is a great mission, some experts are skeptical about the potential success of Amorai.
Concerns About AI Solutions
Maarten Sap, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and researcher for the nonprofit Allen Institute of AI, shared concerns about the concept of an AI relationship coach. Sap’s research focuses on building social common sense and social intelligence into AI.
Potential Pitfalls
Sap expressed his concerns, stating that while the idea of creating a tech solution to help foster real-life relationships is admirable, it may not work as intended. He pointed out that there needs to be proof that Amorai will increase users’ social skills and that its advice will be nuanced enough for different relationship scenarios.
The Risk of Echo Chambers
Sap also warned about the potential creation of echo chambers based on the types of questions people are asking, which could lead to problematic advice. This is reminiscent of Bing’s AI telling people they were unhappy in their marriages.
The Importance of Human Oversight
One way Amorai could work would be if there were human oversight to ensure that the app is giving the right advice to the right people. However, it is unclear whether this is the case, as the company has not been forthcoming about its practices.
The FOMO in AI
Sap’s concerns highlight the deep-seated FOMO (fear of missing out) in the AI industry. Despite being an expert in AI research, Sap expressed skepticism about Amorai’s potential success.
The Future of Relationship Coaching
As we move forward in a post-pandemic world, it will be interesting to see how tech solutions like Amorai evolve and adapt to address the challenges of building and maintaining relationships.
What Do You Think?
Should AI be used to help foster real-life connections, or are there potential pitfalls that need to be addressed?
