Instinct, an AI agent currently valued at $10 billion as of its latest funding round, is also expanding into group chats. The company announced on Monday that users will now be able to add agents to chats with friends. This could be useful in certain scenarios, such as travel planning, obtaining event tickets, running a fantasy league, arranging carpools, and managing who brings what to Thanksgiving.
In particular, the company said group chats with AI agents will work even if a user’s friends aren’t on Instinct.
This launch advances Instinct in the fight against top space competitors like Meta’s Muse. Meta’s older app, Meta AI, can be added to group chats on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook, although the latter doesn’t yet offer group chat functionality.
Instinct and Muse have been in a close race lately, adding the ability to make phone calls in the past few weeks as both agencies seek to gain more ground in the consumer AI market. Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Dots. ChatGPT Dots are personal AI agents that can also be used in ChatGPT Spaces, collaborative workspaces where Dots and humans work together.
At X, Instinct founder Noah Shinn explained how Instinct handles user privacy and security in group chats. He said that a user’s personal Instinct agent will ask for permission before connecting to a group’s Instinct agent, and that users can choose which groups they trust and can remove that trust at any time.
Singh also said that the group’s Instinct is isolated from users’ personal accounts and cannot be accessed. Personal agents always ask for your permission before sharing information or taking any action.
When a new member joins a group chat, any pending replies from the user’s personal Instinct agent will be deferred before being shared to the group.
“Making plans with friends can often be a frustrating back-and-forth over time and space. With Instinct in a group, you can explore options together, agree on a plan, and execute it all in one thread,” writes Shinn.
The feature is initially rolling out to Instinct’s early access users, but will be expanded to all users “soon.” To access new features (or other recently added features), users can ask an Instinct agent to put the feature on their to-try list.
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