Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an account

Instinct announced on Monday that it is expanding its AI agent into group chats, allowing users to add the agent to conversations with friends for tasks such as travel planning, buying event tickets, running fantasy leagues, organizing carpools, or coordinating Thanksgiving contributions. The group chats work even if a user's friends have not joined Instinct, the company said. The startup is valued at $10 billion as of its latest funding round.

The feature begins rolling out to Instinct's early access users and will expand to all users soon, according to the company. Users can ask their Instinct agent to add them to the list to try it.

On X, Instinct founder Noah Shinn described how privacy is handled in group chats. He said a user's personal Instinct agent asks permission before connecting with the group's Instinct agent, and that users can choose which groups they trust and remove that trust at any time. Shinn also said the group Instinct is siloed from users' personal accounts, which it cannot access, and that the personal agent will always ask the user's permission before sharing information or taking any action. If new members join a group chat, pending replies from a user's personal Instinct agent are held before being shared with the group, he said.

The launch puts Instinct ahead of some competitors on group functionality. Meta's Muse does not yet offer group chat support, though Meta's older app, Meta AI, can be added to group chats on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook. Instinct and Muse have been running neck-and-neck recently, with both adding phone call capabilities over the past couple of weeks. Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Dots, personal AI agents that can also be used in ChatGPT Spaces, collaborative workspaces where the Dots and humans work together.