Shapes, an app where people and AI characters talk together in group chats, has exited stealth mode and disclosed that it raised $8 million in seed funding, TechCrunch reported on April 29 local time.

Lightspeed led the round, with participation from AI Capital Partners, AI Grant and individual investors.

Shapes, founded in 2022, has more than 400,000 monthly active users, the report said.

Co-founders Anoushka Mittal and Nouri Dingra see Shapes as able to address the issue of "AI psychosis". AI psychosis refers to a phenomenon in which delusions or a sense of persecution develops after long one-on-one conversations with AI chatbots or AI companions. Shapes aims to reduce such problems by bringing AI into everyday conversations with real people.

Chief Executive Mittal said, "Conversations with AI are mostly private one-on-one, but that is not how people actually communicate." She added, "Our lives revolve around group chats. It makes sense to naturally bring AI into them."

In the app, AI characters are shown under the name "Shapes" and take part in conversations like other users. The app makes it clear they are AI, but there are no limits on how they participate. Users can create Shapes themselves and set their personalities. So far, 3 million Shapes have been created.

Shapes cites reluctance to send the first message as one reason group chats fail to become active. It says AI characters can address that by starting and sustaining conversations. Unlike other AI companion apps, Shapes can send messages on its own without being summoned.

ChatGPT also allows AI and people to talk in group chats, but it is mainly used for planning or brainstorming. Shapes focuses on community-oriented social conversations with AI characters that have a range of personalities. Mittal said, "Shapes is an app for human conversation," adding, "Our main users are people who spend a lot of time online and enjoy connecting and sharing."