Quora new app instant answers using AI chatbots

Quora just launched an app that lets you talk with a variety of AI chatbots, including ChatGPT. The app, called Poe, will give people “instant answers” to their questions, though you can also use it to simply talk with a robot.

This is a pretty trendy idea. Thanks to the rise of ChatGPT, a lot of people are convinced that AI Chatbots will replace search engines. These chatbots are waaaay too resource-intensive to replace Google Search, but for the time being, they could be a convenient alternative to Quora. After all, Poe will answer your questions a lot faster than Quora’s contributors.

The problem, of course, is that artificial intelligence isn’t intelligent. Platforms like ChatGPT routinely give false answers, meaning that any information shared by Poe should be taken with a grain of salt.

Poe will initially be available on iOS, and it will be invite only until we work out scalability, get feedback from beta testers, and address any other issues that come up. After we get through this phase, we will open up to everyone and add support for all platforms.

— Adam D’Angelo (@adamdangelo) December 20, 2022

Now, to be clear, Quora isn’t treating Poe like a “Quora alternative.” The whole point of this app is that it lets you talk with a variety of chatbots—a simple pitch that may change as Quora experiments with this technology.

Poe also seems like a very “safe” attempt at a generative AI product. It taps into existing chatbots and doesn’t pull information from Quora’s vast archives (which would almost certainly result in a copyright infringement lawsuit, as evidenced by the legal trouble surrounding OpenAI).

We’re excited to see where Poe goes. Still, we’re worried that this technology may contribute to misinformation. Poe is currently in beta as an invite-only service, and it only works on iOS. You can join a waitlist on the Poe website.

As an aside, Quora acquired the poe.com domain for just $260,000. That’s a pretty decent price for a three-letter dot-com domain.