SuperChat, a new AI chat app developed by Gorilla Technologies, offers iOS users the opportunity to engage with virtual characters powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What sets SuperChat apart from other generic AI chat apps is the diverse range of characters available for users to chat with, including notable historical figures like Shakespeare, Albert Einstein, Cleopatra, or Neil Armstrong, as well as characters from public domain works, classic stories, or fairy tales such as Snow White, Medusa, or Sherlock Holmes. Additionally, SuperChat has its own original characters, like the standard ChatGPT assistant named Aria, which can assist users with everyday tasks such as email writing and marketing expertise.
The app is designed like a messaging app, allowing users to have multiple conversations with different AI chatbots simultaneously. The AI chatbots are powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5-turbo technology, with artwork for the characters created using Midjourney. While some characters are available for free, others can be unlocked through a premium subscription. However, the pricing for the subscription plans is relatively high, with the cheapest plan at $1.35 per week for an annual subscription (~$70/year) and the weekly subscription at $6.99 per week, which may be less accessible for kids, the target market of SuperChat.
One aspect that sets SuperChat apart is the ability to interact with characters in the style of their personas. However, there may be room for improvement in terms of the characters’ speech patterns and consistency in sounding like the character they represent. For example, while characters may be aware of their own history, their speaking style may still come across as generic AI.
SuperChat faces competition from other AI chatbot apps in the market, such as Poe from Quora that allows users to create their own bots with customized language and personas. Other companies, including Google and D-ID, are also exploring the combination of AI with avatars or synthetic voices. Nevertheless, SuperChat aims to tap into the growing market for AI chatbots, with in-app user spending in this space increasing by over 4,000% year-over-year, reaching nearly $3 million across top apps as of March.
SuperChat is available as a free download on iOS with in-app purchases, but it may take some time to reach all users and markets on the App Store as it was recently released.
