Discord’s AI Chatbot, Clyde, Shuts Down This December

Discord’s AI Chatbot, Clyde, Shuts Down This December

If you’re a frequent user of Discord, you should be familiar with the name ‘Clyde’ – most people know it as the Microsoft Clippy-style robot that reminds you of tips or any alerts as you roam around the platform. However, you probably didn’t know that it’s also at some point an AI chatbot – but it no longer will be, starting this December.

Discord’s attempt at AI started as part of the ChatGPT AI craze that happened earlier this year (time goes fast, isn’t it) when companies all over the world are trying to justify AI by cramming it into any and every gap as they see fit. Some worked, some didn’t – and it’s pretty evident in this case Clyde is the latter, though the company never cited any reasons officially. The chatbot used OpenAI’s GPT model to interact with human users in small amounts of servers. (I have never seen it at work, though.)

Responding to The Verge, Discord’s Director of Product Communications, Kellyn Slone, stated: “Clyde is an experiment shared with a small percentage of servers. Discord is constantly working on bringing users new features and experiences. Clyde is one iteration of this work, and we look forward to unveiling new user experiences in the future.”

Discord’s AI ambitions are not stopping here, though. While the AI chatbot experiment ends here, nothing is stopping the company from trying out AI in other forms. Other AI-assisted features, such as server moderation and image generation, remain. Alternatively, it’s not entirely ruled out that certain cut features may make their way back as a subscription-only benefit (Discord Nitro).

Pokdepinion: Given the presence of AI in the platform, the chatbot probably will return at some point?