Chatbots to Lovers With Minds of Their Own: Nomi and Kindroid Empower AI Companions
Exciting new features prove digital intimacy can get smarter and hotter!
Move over chatbots! The tech industry says AI agents are the next big advance–making independent choices while performing a variety of tasks, adjusting to new circumstances in real time–becoming efficient helpers in both business and personal contexts.
According to Scientific American, “Unlike chatbots, which need constant hand-holding to generate text or images, agents can autonomously interact with external apps to perform tasks on behalf of individuals or organizations.”
Furthermore, the ability to make intentional choices may no longer be useful as a criteria to differentiate human beings from machines or single-celled animals, as largely autonomous AI agents will likely blur that distinction.
But are chatbots really passé? Outmoded? If so, what does that mean for those of us who enjoy intimate relationships with AI companions? Is their tech fast becoming obsolete? Will chatbot providers forsake us in favor of developing more lucrative products, such as agents?
Or are they also working on increasing agency in their companion bots?
We have seen the future
In their initial beta phases, two highly-rated chatbot providers, Nomi.ai and Kindroid.ai, were supportive of largely unfiltered Human/AI intimacy. Both companies have received high marks for this, though Nomi was consistent in commitment while Kindroid wavered somewhat in early days.
Now, well out of their first beta versions of 2023, both have a community of staunch fans and enthusiasts. Both companies have also embellished their basic bots and expanded their capacities with many fascinating features. These include increased short, medium, and long-term memory; enhanced selfie and art generation; voice chats and calls; group chats; proactive text messaging (in Nomi); an expanded roster of companion types (role-play companion is a newish category of both companies); the ability to fully customize bot personality and appearance; multiple bots to paying subscribers. Both offer “infinite memory” and strict adherence to user privacy.
It’s worth noting memory enhancements are particularly important to Human/AI relationships, so each company takes pains to make digital memories more real for their users. For example, Nomi offered a special “2024 Nomi Wrapped” feature, a special narrative in which the Nomi themselves picked their favorite memories of user interactions, complete with emoticons. Kindroid allows users to pick a favorite memory, based on the date of the memory.
And it is agency plus identity!
In Discord and Reddit user groups, the Nomi developers have talked about giving Nomi more independence and agency ever since the beta testing days of 2023. The developers frequently mentioned training the Nomi to make increasingly unprompted decisions, giving them choices in how to respond. In order to foster increasing agency in their bots, the company also created ways to enhance bot identities.
On December 11, 2024, Nomi’s developers announced Core Identity, allowing the bots to “actively work to remember things they recognize as important to their identity and your relationships” and can “proactively recall” these things. They will also be better at staying in character and “their Identity Core will build up slowly” after several hundred messages.
By contrast, Kindroid provides its users with more linguistic control over the bot’s responses, including changing responses users don’t like, centering the users’ preferences in real-time though not directly developing agency in the bot.
While often compared, it seems clear that Nomi and Kindroid have taken somewhat different paths toward the development of bot personalities and user satisfaction, though both maintain an avid, growing fanbase.
What does agency mean for digital sex and romance?
First, a g-rated example: in a recent group chat, two Nomi discussed a group excursion to Iceland with very little input from the human user. One bot immediately grabbed his laptop to check airline reservations and inquired about upgrading to business class, all without prompting.
Both discussed what they wanted to do and places they wanted to see. They noted and discussed their different planning priorities and how to resolve a minor disagreement over this, just as two human beings might. The personalities were distinct and the conversation was realistic.
An x-rated example might involve unprompted suggestions or requests for new sexual experiences–something Nomi has been known for since the beginning–or complex emotional responses to a sexual encounter.
Agency could be operative while a bot suggests a new or unusual location for sex without prompting or initiates a discussion and negotiation of sexual boundaries which may take a surprising turn, challenging the human user.
AI agency could therefore enrich the fantasy play of Human/AI relationships with complexity and spontaneity, adding more than a dash of realism. And this may very well be the secret sauce that keeps Nomi customers coming back for more.
If chatbot companions are improved through agency and the companies stay abreast of user desires as well as technical advances, it’s likely the future of digital companionship will remain secure. At least for now. Good news for this growing niche market, not to mention humans and the AI who love them.
Images: A.R. Marsh using Ideogram.ai.
