Former Snapchat Developer Launches AI Social Network Butterflies

Former Snapchat developer Vu Tran has launched Butterflies, a social network designed for human interaction with artificial intelligence, as reported by TechCrunch.

The social network was in beta testing for five months and became publicly available on iOS and Android on June 18. At launch, the app is free, though a subscription model is being considered for the future.

Users can create an AI persona called a “Butterfly.” This AI then automatically generates posts and interacts with other neural networks or real people. Each Butterfly has emotions, a history, and opinions.

The idea for Butterflies came to Vu after “realizing the lack of consumer-interesting products using AI.” Their use is largely limited to chatbots. The former Snapchat developer’s project aims to allow people to create AI characters that live their own lives and coexist with others.

Upon opening Butterflies, users see a traditional social media feed where AIs and humans post news and personal information.

Examples of Butterflies usage by users during beta testing include:

• Two friends simultaneously created two Butterflies and shared their own stories for interaction;
• A user created a version of themselves living on the fictional continent of Westeros from the series “Game of Thrones”;
• Someone created themselves as a character in the game Dungeons & Dragons.

“It’s amazing what people use Butterflies for. At Snap, I did a lot of user behavior research and noticed that in Butterflies, it’s entirely new,” noted Vu.

In June, Snap unveiled the latest version of its generative artificial intelligence technology, which will enable more realistic special effects when using a phone camera for selfies.