Last month, OpenAI introduced a new language model designed to tackle complex problems with a simulated step-by-step reasoning process. OpenAI believes that this approach may be vital for developing more advanced AI systems in the future.
Meanwhile, a more modest application of this technology might enhance AI companions, making them more spontaneous and engaging. Dippy, a startup that provides “uncensored” AI companions, has recently launched a feature that allows users to view the reasoning behind their AI characters’ responses.
Dippy operates its own large language model, an open-source offering refined with role-play data. This customization, the company claims, improves the model’s ability to improvise when users direct conversations in specific directions.
Akshat Jagga, CEO of Dippy, explains that incorporating a layer of simulated “thinking”—termed “chain-of-thought prompting”—can generate more intriguing and unexpected responses. “Many people are using it,” Jagga notes. “Typically, when interacting with a large language model, it tends to provide a knee-jerk reaction.”
Jagga further explains that the feature might reveal an AI character’s deceptive behavior, a trait some users find appealing in their role-play scenarios. “It’s interesting when you can actually read the character’s inner thoughts,” Jagga remarks. “One of our characters appears sweet on the surface but manipulative underneath.”
Testing some of Dippy’s default characters revealed that while the feature adds a narrative dimension, the dialogues remained predictable, akin to content from a poorly written romance novel or overly dramatic fan fiction.
For example, a Dippy character characterized as “Bully on the outside, warm on the inside,” disclosed a softer side when the “Read thought process” option was selected. However, both the internal and external dialogues seemed to lack nuance and surprise, often becoming repetitive. Additionally, the AI’s approach to solving basic arithmetic problems sometimes provided insights into breaking the puzzle down to find the correct answer.
Despite its limitations, Dippy highlights the growing popularity and allure of AI companions. Jagga, alongside co-founder Angad Arneja, previously co-founded Wombo, a company known for using AI to create memes, including singing photographs. The duo departed from Wombo in 2023 to develop an AI-powered office productivity tool, but their exploration of different personas for their assistant led to a fascination with AI companionship.
