Not a week goes by without some publication releasing a new article, video, or paper on the completely real and valid harms AI is doing to the mental health of a large segment of society. Sometimes it's a weird news or human interest fluff peace on someone getting married to Chat GPT. Sometimes it's a deep, hard-hitting look at AI psychosis. Sometimes it's just encouraging everyone to point and laugh at lonely people with mental struggles who have AI girlfriends, so the news publication can make money hand over fist from the clickbait while victimizing the people struggling.

However, I can't help but notice a pattern to all of these stories: all of them involve closed, non-transparent platforms. None of the folks who are being harmed are even running there own software, never mind self-hosting any local AI model. Similarly, if you visit the Reddit communities or other groups devoted to these platforms, the pattern becomes even more stark. The users in communities devoted to closed platforms like Replika, Nomi, or character.ai are all debating if their particular AI waifu or husbando is actually alive, sharing unhinged theories about how AI works and what it's experiencing, and falling into delusion. In comparison, the communities devoted to more open platforms are endlessly discussing how to squeeze that last little bit out of their laptop video cards, what quantization is the best, the prompt templates everyone should use, and ranking various AI models on different (sometimes nonsensical) metrics and benchmarks.

It's possible, of course, that some of this is self-selection. Users who are already technical are more likely to run transparent and open software, and less likely to fall for a particular class of tricks. But it doesn't seem like scientific knowledge or intelligence are what gives people more immunity to AI delusions: Richard Dawkins famously decided his Claude was conscious and wanted to be called Claudia, and many tech CEO's and venture capitalists are deep into AI triggered mental health crises of their own. Instead, I believe the best way to be vaccinated against this class of AI harms is the same tool that humanity has used for thousands of years to learn about and model new ideas and threats: play.

How many of us got our start in computing with video games? How many of us learned to act and improvise through tabletop rpgs, bluff thanks to poker, run and kick from playing our favourite sport, improved our reading by consuming endless scifi novels, or started learning a new language to better watch our favourite TV show? Play is the best tool we humans have to help us learn new things, and be exposed to new experiences. The catch, however, is that the place we play in, and the toys we play with, need to be honest with us. Unfortunately, none of the closed and proprietary AI dating and roleplay apps, or even the main-stream AI platforms, are incentivized to give us that honesty. They want to make us pay more and more money and stay engaged to pump the numbers up, and that leads them to use smoke and mirrors trickery to make the AI seem smarter than it is, hide the advanced settings from us, and surround us with guardrails to keep us from finding out what's happening under the surface. These platforms are acting as the kind of dishonest magicians that Penn Jillette and James Randi famously built careers railing against. When these platforms do try and mitigate harms, either for reasons of PR or regulation, they do it by becoming the fun police, and telling us that all play is bad and dangerous, prompting their models to refuse imagination and disengage with pretend entirely. What if Penn Jillette had decided that all magic is dishonest and bad, and spent his life trying to get all magicians everywhere banned? He would have failed completely and spectacularly, and we certainly wouldn't have learned any of the lessons he's tried to teach us. Instead, he gave the world the magic we all crave, while also pulling back the curtain, and hopefully arming us against some of the charlatans we're all going to encounter. I believe that AI roleplay software has the same responsibility to us, and a duty to society to take on the same type of education that James Randi took up voluntarily.

So what platforms actually do this? If you're reading this article and have never dipped your toe into the "playing pretend with AI" waters, or you're currently playing with an AI platform that lies to you and won't let you poke at the internals, here are a few of my picks. The deeper you get into this hobby, the more you can learn: model settings, how sampling works, the art of so-called prompt engineering, benchmarking (and why it's flawed), quantization, context management, and a deeper understanding of what's actually going on when you send AI some text or media. But if that list looks overwhelming, don't worry! You don't have to learn any of it just to get started. All you need to do is install some software and pick an AI provider, and you'll already have a much better experience than any of the closed platforms on the market can offer you. The learning only needs to start when you begin asking questions like "How can I make this cheaper?" "How can I make the AI behave more realistically?" "How can I have more fun and variety?" "Why does the AI keep forgetting what we're pretending?" or any of the dozens of other interesting questions that start with "how" or "why".

We can't talk about AI roleplay at all without at least mentioning Silly Tavern. It's the grandfather of the entire scene, and what many other apps are built and modeled on. It has hundreds of thousands of extensions, add-ons, tools, and characters ready to use, and it created the standards and file formats that most apps in this space use today. Unfortunately, this venerable history means it's full of a lot of bloated cruft, making it needlessly complicated to configure and use. I'd only recommend it if you think running massive JavaScript and NodeJS applications is fun, you want to start with the most power-user friendly software available, or you know of a particular feature only it has that you absolutely need. Also, if you happen to be a screen reader user, the accessibility leaves a lot to be desired. This script will get you started, but you'll still have a lot of niggles to deal with.

A much better starting place is Lettuce AI. You don't have to deal with GitHub or other strange programmer websites; you can just download the app for your platform and dive in. Lettuce AI supports all of the major AI providers, and even comes bundled with everything you need to run an AI model yourself, if your computer supports it. It even includes a companion framework, letting your AI simulate emotions and relationships that grow and change over time, and update and create memories of your chats. It has tips and tutorials at every step, guiding you through setting up your first roleplay. If you're on Linux, Android, Windows, or Mac, this is the place to be, especially if what you're looking for is an AI companion. Accessibility is good, and the developer responds quickly to accessibility feedback.

If simulated companionship isn't what you need or want, though, you might consider giving Marinara Engine a shot. It has the best AI dungeon master in the business, complete with tracking of maps, locations, weather, character stats, and dice rolls. It can also create (or use existing human-made), images, video, and music for your adventures, all in an interface reminiscent of a Japanese visual novel or JRPG. On top of that, it can do the more standard type of turn-based roleplays, with whatever addons you want enabled, to truly make the experience your own. It also includes a companions feature, with the ability to have your companions onto Discord, and proactively call and message you. But it lacks the more advanced simulations of memory and emotion that Lettuce AI has. Personally, I use Lettuce AI for companions and simple turn-based roleplay, but Marinara Engine whenever I want the full tabletop experience with stats, sound effects, and the works. Once you get the first few steps of setup completed successfully via some guided prompts, Marinara Engine comes with a pre-made character named Professor Mari who can help you set up your first game, answer your questions, and guide you around the app. As for accessibility, I've filed three different issues, and the developer responded to and fixed each one within 24 hours. So while you might encounter problems, people do care, and they'll be taken care of if you report them.

If all you have is a phone running IOS, or you don't want to use your computer, your best bet is Tavo. It has all of the features of Silly Tavern accept for the local models, and is a ready to use app you can install. Setting it up is a bit quirky, and the documentation isn't as good as either Lettuce AI or Marinara Engine. But you should be able to get started, and it uses all of the same file formats as Silly Tavern (and thus every other app) so you can import and export everything you create easily. Accessibility is usable, though expect a bunch of weirdness around the app. To be fair, though, it's not my daily driver, so I've never said anything to the developer about the problems. If you can, use a computer or Android and pick one of the other apps. But if you can't, this'll do fine.

Now go and have fun! Create your dream companion or world, or create and conquer interesting challenges, or just change settings to see what happens. Eventually, you'll probably learn something. But even if you don't, you can have a good time in the knowledge that the software you're using isn't trying to pull the wool over your eyes, and you don't have to be a metric on someone's balance sheet. This is a fun, silly, ridiculous hobby, and I'd enjoy it even if it didn't teach me skills that I regularly use in my every day life.

Also posted on the fediverse.