I remember this! The concept and worldbuilding was awesome and the story was decent. Way different from what I expected from the guy who makes puzzle games.
Basically, 20 minutes into the future, a company has created a therapist AI and employs human proxies - it looks like you’re talking to a human therapist, but they’re only allowed to say what the AI tells them to.
The MC was one of the AI’s lead developers, but she fell into a depression and started questioning her role. She quits and becomes a proxy on the down low to better understand what she made and what it means for society.
There’s an overarching plot where you follow her on that journey and meet people with different motivations and viewpoints on the technology, and the story is fair to all of them.
But the real draw is the “therapy” sessions. The patients feel so real, and you (and the MC) get to choice between repeating the AI’s lines or speaking up.
man it’s depressing how relevant it has become now, instead of a sci-fi philosophy thought experiment
This looks rather familiar - not that I played it but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before. Might have to dig through my back log to see if I didn’t burrow it somewhere for later. Either way, looks like an interesting find.
Found it because Zachtronics, a company way more known for their puzzle games enjoyed by engineers and programmers, made it.
After abandoning her high-powered tech career and a mysterious three-year absence, Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey resurfaces working as a proxy for a virtual counseling app called Eliza. Her job consists solely of reading a script provided to her in real-time by an AI, leaving her no autonomy over what she says.
Not sure if this is a more modern-day phone app or what, but either way it is almost certainly a nod to the 1960s ELIZA chatbot.
A rare VN that doesn’t look like it belongs on ani.social (in other words, doesn’t have an anime artstyle).
Put the disclaimer about AI in the title and not in the body or post text to make sure people don’t reflexively downvote because of the word “AI”. I am anti-generative-AI, this VN is just speculating (as in wonder, think, generate ideas, not as in investing riskily) on AI as a concept. Not using AI to do art and text and music. This was done in 2019, before that was a possibility for the public at large.
