Instinct brings AI agent to group chats, works even without friends' accounts

Instinct, the AI agent company valued at $10 billion following its latest funding round, announced on Monday that it is expanding its agent into group chats with friends. The feature could prove useful for tasks like planning trips, securing event tickets, running fantasy sports leagues, coordinating carpools, or figuring out who's bringing what to a holiday gathering.

Notably, the group chat feature works even if a user's friends haven't signed up for Instinct themselves. The rollout is starting with early access users, with a wider release planned soon.

Competing with Meta and OpenAI

The launch pushes Instinct ahead in its rivalry with competitors such as Meta's Muse, which does not yet offer group chat functionality, though Meta's older Meta AI app can already be added to group chats on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook. Both Instinct and Muse have recently added phone-calling capabilities as they compete for a larger share of the consumer AI market. Last week, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Dots, personal AI agents that can also operate within ChatGPT Spaces, its collaborative workspaces.

Privacy safeguards

Instinct founder Noah Shinn explained on social media platform X how the company handles privacy in group settings. A user's personal Instinct agent asks permission before connecting to a group's agent, and users can choose which groups to trust or revoke that trust at any time. The group's agent is kept siloed from users' personal accounts and cannot access them. The personal agent always asks for permission before sharing information or taking action on a user's behalf. If new members join a group chat, any pending replies from a user's personal agent are held back before being shared with the group.

Users interested in trying the new feature can ask their Instinct agent to add them to the access list.