Andrea Campos struggled with depression for years before founding Yana, a mental health care app, in 2017. The app’s chatbot provides users emotional companionship in Spanish. Although she was reluctant at first, Campos began using generative artificial intelligence for the Yana chatbot after ChatGPT launched in 2022. Yana, which recently launched its English-language version, has 15 million users, and is available in Latin America and the U.S.
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Some people lack friends to begin with, and AI companions can fill that gap. Of course, social skills with real humans are what’s ultimately important and many of us users are actively working on that, but AI companions can help those who struggle to connect with others in the first place.