I Made an AI Chatbot

I like reading books. It's a chance for me to get in the mind of another. See how they think, how they view the world. This has been helpful on my own healing journey.

And while books are great, they do have some limitations. For example, you're not able to ask the author a question while you're reading. The book won't be able to give you a tailored response. What's written is written, and that's final. There's no follow up.

But technology has gotten good enough that maybe this doesn't have to be the case anymore.

For a while now, I've been thinking about how I can make my own writing more effective. Same-sex attraction is such a complex and nuanced topic. Magically, if I had unlimited time and resources, I'd sit down with each of you individually and ask what's on your mind. I'd listen carefully and do my best to answer. And there'd be plenty of opportunity to follow up.

But since that's not possible, I've tried to do the next best thing. I made an AI Chatbot.

How it works

The chatbot is a RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) agent that generates responses by integrating information from its knowledge base. That knowledge base includes all of my writings and other content I've found to be helpful in understanding and navigating same-sex attraction – such as peer-reviewed literature, articles, and others' experiences.

It's built using an open-source model, Kimi-K2-Instruct, as opposed to other mainstream frontier models. This is because other models I tried, such as ChatGPT by OpenAI, are heavily influenced by political biases and simply would undermine content from the knowledge base.

The hope is that the chatbot can act as an information source, or perhaps even a guide, to inform your own journey – whatever that might be. Perhaps you've got questions or thoughts that beg an immediate response. Or maybe you want more clarity on something I've written.

It can be used by anyone. Whether you're struggling yourself or maybe looking to support a family member. Maybe you're a friend, therapist, or a clergy member who's looking to support someone you care about. You could even be someone who's highly skeptical, but wants to learn more.

For example, you could ask it something like this:

• I'm a man. I'm sexually drawn to other guys, but still find I'm romantically attracted to women. How do I navigate this?
• I think I'm addicted to gay pornography. What do I do?
• How can I help my son who is struggling with his sexuality?
• How can I start forming platonic same-sex relationships while struggling with social anxiety?
• I'm a therapist. How can I support a client navigating unwanted same-sex attraction?
• How does same-sex attraction develop? What happens neurologically?
• Can people change their sexual orientation?

The chatbot is here to address your questions or concerns – no matter the time, 24/7.

That said, it's not going to be perfect. It won't sound like me. And it won't know all the answers. It might even say some silly things or hallucinate. But my hope is that it's a step in the right direction. I think there are people that are starving for this information and maybe the chatbot can help in that regard.

Try it & Share!

A few other things to keep in mind. I've had to update the privacy policy here to accommodate the new chatbot. If you decide to use it, make sure you agree to the updated privacy policy.

I also want to give a shoutout to one of the subscribers of this newsletter. He was instrumental in making this chatbot a reality by showing me what was possible. And he was very generous with his time. You know who you are. So thank you.

For now, the chatbot is 100% free to use if you're a subscribed member. So sign up if you haven't already!

You can find the chatbot by clicking the link at the top of my website, or you can also click here to access the chatbot:

In the meantime, I'll continue writing weekly articles. Over time, the chatbot should improve with more information. And I will be working on making it better and more accurate. But I'm very curious to see how it lands.

If you decide to use it, let me know how it goes in the comment section below. Are the responses helpful? Is there anything that could be improved? Share it with others too! The more people use it and the more feedback I get, the better I'll be able to tune it. And the better it gets, the more people it can help.

Finally, I appreciate in advance your patience with this experiment. I'm not a software engineer. And I don't think of myself a writer. I often struggle to find the right words. But my hope is that this chatbot can provide more value, guidance, and understanding.

Cheers!