Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat together in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. Think Discord, but with AI characters alongside humans. 

Founded in 2022, Shapes has more than 400,000 monthly active users. The app’s founders, Anushk Mittal and Noorie Dhingra, believe that Shapes can address issues around “AI Psychosis,” which refers to cases where prolonged interactions with AI chatbots or AI companions can cause individuals to develop delusions or paranoia. 

Instead of isolating people with one-on-one interactions with AI, Shapes allows people to connect with AI within their everyday interactions with real people. 

“Today, all of our conversations with AI are very private and one-on-one, but that’s not really how humans collaborate and communicate with each other,” Shapes CEO Mittal told TechCrunch in an interview. “Our lives run on group chats. That’s where we spend all of our time. That’s where we talk and communicate with each other. It’s just natural to bring in AI into those same conversations where AI has all of the context and is readily available to help you.”

In the app, AI characters, called “Shapes,” are viewed as any other user and can interact in all the same ways humans can. They’re clearly labeled as “Shapes” for transparency, but they aren’t restricted. 

Users can create their own Shapes and set their personalities. The company says users have already created three million Shapes to add into group chats. Many Shapes are rooted in fandom, as the app serves as a way for fans to deep-dive on subculture and meet other fans. 

When users sign up for the app, they’re asked to choose their interests so the app can recommend a selection of group chats they might be interested in joining.

While some may question the need for adding AI into group chats, Mittal and Dhingra believe one of the main reasons group chats die is that some participants don’t want to be the first person to send a message. Shapes solves this, as AI agents can initiate conversations and play a key role in keeping them going. 

Additionally, users don’t have to worry about not getting a response to their messages because Shapes will always acknowledge and respond to them. Unlike AI companions on other apps that need to be summoned, Shapes have free will and can decide when to message.

It’s worth noting that although the popular chatbot ChatGPT already allows AI and humans to converse in group chats, those conversations operate differently from Shapes. For example, when you create a group chat in ChatGPT, it’s mostly for planning or brainstorming. On Shapes, however, it’s all about social, community-style interactions with AI characters that have various personalities. 

The startup is aware that not everyone will want to bring AI into their group conversations, which is why the app is designed for a specific type of online user. 

“Shapes is about human conversations,” Mittal said. “It’s more of a next-gen chat app than an AI app. The demographic is people who are obsessively online, who spend a lot of time online connecting and sharing. Those are the users who come in and they get an opportunity to obsess about their interests, and the AI acts as a facilitator in those conversations.”

Shapes’ growth has been driven by word of mouth, Mittal says, with the app seeing a sixfold increase in users since the start of the year. The company also says that thousands of users spend two to four hours in the app each day.

As for the new funding, the company plans to use it to accelerate development and user acquisition. The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from AI Capital Partners, AI Grant, and angel investors.