The Rise and Development of AI Companions
Feb. 20 2025, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
Virtual companions have been around for as long as most can remember. Whether it was the Tamagotchi toys that dangled from one’s keyring, or the Screenmates like Felix the Cat that used to prance on the screens of desktop computers, virtual companions–and the fascination surrounding them–have been in everyday life for some time.
The recent rise of artificial intelligence has made what used to be ordinary digital companions perform actions that were previously thought impossible. Capable of inferring context, responding to complex topics, and even remembering previous aspects of a conversion, modern chatbots can now serve as fully-fledged virtual companions. Some have even gone so far as to create AI partners, such as an AI Girlfriend, utilizing newfound technology.
However, AI companions–and the technology that fuels them–haven’t just sprung out of nowhere. The rise of the AI companion has been in development for some time.
The First Chatbots
The first virtual companions, or artificially intelligent companions, were created all the way back in the 60s. The first that is generally recognized as the original chatbot was called ELIZA, and was created by a German-American developer named Joseph Weizenbaum. ELIZA was created to parody a Rogerian therapist, and was utilized to rephrase a patient’s questions to repeat them back to the patient.
The next chatbot would come in the 1970s, and would be called PARRY. As a natural language program, PARRY would redefine the way computers responded to human input in ways that were previously thought impossible. It would even go on to pass the Turing Test, which determines whether or not a machine is capable of demonstrating human intelligence.
The Rise of Screenmates
Many who utilized the internet in the late ‘90s to the mid-2000s will likely remember ScreenMates: the virtual companions that would wander desktop computers. Some were in the shape of animals, such as Felix the Cat, while others would take on the form of popular cartoon characters. They were capable of performing actions such as interacting with open browser windows, as well as chasing the mouse cursor around the screen.
While not true companions in the sense that they were not artificially intelligent, Screenmates likely helped fuel modern ideas about the way virtual companions were meant to interact and behave with people.
The Technology Behind the Modern AI Companion
Modern AI companions have become more advanced than ever. By utilizing the use of natural language processing (NLP), chatbots are capable of analyzing words and phrases in the messages that users input to them in order to understand a particular user’s intent. It is then capable of searching a predefined database of pre-programmed responses for relevant answers, which allows the chatbot to send back the answer to the user via the user interface.
While natural language processing is a key part of how AI chatbots understand and act upon user requests, there are other aspects that chatbots utilize to perform their functions. These include:
- Natural Language Understanding (NLU), which is the process of converting text into data that can then be understood by a machine.
- Natural Language Generation (NLG), which is the process of converting data back into text so it can be understood by humans.
Through a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a chatbot can utilize natural language processing (NLP) to understand, interpret, and generate human language. NLP combines both machine learning algorithms and computational linguistics to complete these tasks, such as those required when asking what the time is in a certain part of the world, or in pulling information for a specific question when it is inserted into the interface.
Benefits to Modern AI Companions
Many might assume that AI companions are simply just tools to use for research purposes, or maybe even just for fun. However, in the aftermath of world-defining events, such as those that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, some have found that AI companions have been able to tackle a new sort of problem: the loneliness epidemic.
In a world where warnings have been issued in regard to the dangers of loneliness, and the World Health Organization has reported on the staggering implications of mental health globally, Generative AI (GenAI) bots have been viewed as a solution to the ongoing conflicts that many face with loneliness. They are most often useful for those who are not in any sort of crisis, and are even seen as beneficial to those who feel more comfortable interacting with computers. Mental health experts have indicated that AI chatbots can even be used in therapeutic settings. Projects in Sweden, including those such as Memory Lane, are even utilizing AI to help senior citizens record and preserve their life stories.
Potential Downsides to AI Companions
However, even with the potential uses for artificially intelligent companions, some have expressed worries that some people will forego human interaction in favor of their digital counterparts. Some have even grown concerned about the way some early variations of these chatbots are interacting with the public, as there have been reports of them telling users to break the law or commit potentially criminal acts.
Even with these issues present, the way people choose to interact with chatbots, and what they perceive they may get out of these interactions, varies from person to person. While some are simply seeking to play with these chatbots to see what they are capable of, and others are looking for interactions that might seem a little more real, some are utilizing chatbots to advance social sciences and help in therapeutic and medical settings.
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The Future of AI
The world of AI is, in many ways, already advanced. In others, its capabilities are only just beginning to be understood.
As the technology progresses, and its uses become more readily understood, users can expect artificial intelligence to be more common in the world around them. It is already present in desktop computers, in smartphone applications, and businesses, whether they be banking institutions or even medical offices.
Artificial intelligence is poised to become more advanced as machine learning deepens. Because of this, AI companions may be seen in more places than previously thought possible.
