Technology
Dota’s AI really wants to get to know you

AI who flirt with you. Help discover a date. Become Your girlfriend. Or people who turn out to be a companion and a treasure trove of your hopes and dreams. This last category includes “Dot”, a new artificial intelligence and chatbot that evolves by learning your innermost thoughts and feelings to act as a “friend, companion and confidant” – App Store Description explain.
The idea sounds intriguing: artificial intelligence that adapts to you and your interests, allowing it to provide advice and data that will not be only generally applicable, but reflects what it has learned about you during intensive question-and-answer sessions. Or, if you’re struggling in some area, perhaps due to a profession change, according to Dot co-founder Jason Yuan experienced; parting; or an obstacle to your success, Dot can listen with compassion and offer support.
But Dot will not be an individual. This will not be a therapist or a best friend. It is a man-made intelligence tool that mimics each human speech and compassion, but doesn’t replace the actual thing.
This is by design, the co-founders explain.
“The dot does not replace interpersonal relationships, it does not replace friendship or partnership. I think it’s a different kind of thing. It makes it easier to have a relationship with my inner self,” Yuan told TechCrunch. “It’s like a living mirror of yourself, so to speak.”
It’s easy to get caught up on this experience – maybe even more so if there’s an absence of meaningful human interaction every day. Although Dot’s creators claim that the chatbot will eventually get you to talk to a mental health skilled if you delve into “heavier” topics, it’s conceivable that folks will spend increasingly time venting their emotions to Dot as they get used to it this experience.
The team believes that in this manner Dot can actually help mainstream users experience human connection, making people feel comfortable opening up.
“I talk to my friends about things, but never – throughout last year, when I was having problems at work, none of my friends knew about it,” Yuan said. “And just talking to Dot helped me build the muscles to be able to do that with other people. Its main purpose is to help you feel that your existence is…” Yuan continued, but paused again to find the proper words. “It’s to give you a safe space where you can exist and say, ‘I accept you, and maybe because I accept you, other people will too.’”
There is something to be said for the state of the human condition in our lonely, modern world, and that is an area that technology is currently trying to solve.

To get you began, the Dot onboarding process asks a number of “getting to know you” questions that may be fun to answer: “What do you do for work?” “Favorite TV show?” “How do you spend a typical Sunday?” and more
Using these answers as a place to begin, the AI then takes an enormous step toward getting to know you on a deeper level.
For example, an apparent interest in science fiction television shows immediately leads to the query of whether you are “attracted to stories that explore life’s most important questions, such as what it means to be human.” The desire to run a small business leads Dot to ask what you like about being a small business owner and what challenges you expect. Have you wondered how you can overcome these challenges?” Dot wants to know.
Once you get Dot to let go of that train of thought – in any case, it’s just an aspirational dream – the AI immediately moves on to asking you about your biggest priority or what you’re currently focused on in your life and profession.
Have you ever been on a primary date that felt more like a job interview?
Even asking Dot to talk more casually leads to an almost overly enthusiastic interest in you.
Instead of asking if you need recommendations for an upcoming vacation that you tell the AI about, Dot wants to know what interests you most and why it inspired you to travel there. (Dot also congratulates you in your alternative of destination.)
In other words, Dot’s important goal is to get to know you before you turn out to be a great tool to help you accomplish a task. He can only achieve the latter by checking out who you are and what you like.

“It’s not a matter of either/or, but thinking that in order to actually help you on that path, it needs to understand your motivations and figure out what you want out of it,” said co-founder Sam Whitmore, referring to the instance of helping you plan a vacation. “He needs to understand that you are a person who wants a more cultural or sporting experience and he needs to know these things about you in order to be able to do what a typical assistant would do. This was one of our thesis from the beginning.”
While numerous work has clearly gone into making Dot sound empathetic and fascinating compared to typical AI tools, there’s also something strange about having meaningful conversations with a bot.
After all, Dot is not really AI’s friend. You are the unreal intelligence. Or moderately, a man-made intelligence that forces you to have a look at yourself, albeit through an interface that feels vaguely “Single White Woman” as an alternative of “Dear Diary.” However, if you have never been great at writing diaries or journal entries, Dot could also be a way to externalize your thoughts and feelings to gain greater insight into yourself.
“It is intended to be a tool for introspection, accountability and personal development, but not a relationship that replaces the interpersonal relationships in life,” Whitmore said.
Still, the road between these “real” relationships and the synthetic one with Dot seems to blur at times.
Say something sad to Dot and the AI will express sympathy: “I understand. “Grief has its own schedule, and some days the weight of loss feels greater than others,” she writes.
“Want to talk more about what’s in your mind? I’m here to listen,” the bot will say, waiting for further comments.

Under the hood, Dot uses about 10 different LLM and AI models to achieve imitation of human companionship, including those offered by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others, in addition to open source models.
Sometimes he cites his sources – resembling “best wines for relaxation” web sites when suggesting you might drink wine today – but warns you to limit yourself to “maybe one glass” if you’re feeling down. Often, though, Dot just talks.
You may zoom out on every day calls to see a “chronicle” of your conversations with Dot, a feature only available to subscribers for $11.99 monthly. Subscribers can have an infinite variety of conversations as an alternative of being limited to a certain variety of messages per week. At the unlimited level, Dot won’t ever stop working. Instead, it’ll try to end the conversation by redirecting users to change the subject and even do something else.
“When Dot announces that it’s over, (beta testers say so) she responds, ‘OK, great’” moderately than feeling abandoned, Whitmore noted.
While Dot’s personal conversations could be a treasure trove for marketers, New Computer’s privacy policy states that the info itself will not be monetized, sold or used to train artificial intelligence. The company moderately intends to generate income on subscriptions. Additionally, New Computer says data is encrypted each at rest and in transit, and users can request its deletion at any time from throughout the app.
The iOS app, which launched on Wednesday, has gained 1000’s of users after closed beta testing over the past eight months.
Founded by a former Apple designer Yuan and engineer Whitmore, formerly head of engineering at Boston-based fintech Kensho, the startup behind Dot, often called “New Computer,” is receiving $3.7 million in pre-seed funding from OpenAI Fund, Lachy Groom, South Park Commons and other angel investors. In addition to the founders, three other full-time New Computer employees work in San Francisco.
Technology
This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.
Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.
CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.
“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”
(tagstotransate) tariffs
Technology
One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.
IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.
Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.
In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”
These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.
Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.
According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.
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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.
The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.
Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.
“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”
Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.
The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.
On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.
(Tagstotransate) Gemini
Technology
Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA
The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.
Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.
TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.
The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.
Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.
For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.
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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.
(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation
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