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Re-Re-Introducing Noni

GlenM July 13th, 2023

Noni is our friendly chatbot. Did you know that we introduced her in 2014? We wrote about her here and here. We then invested a lot of time and resources to help her grow when we re-introduced her in this 2017 post. There was a big jump from Noni 2014 to Noni 2017. Technology has evolved a lot since 2017. It is now time for Noni 2023. This next version of Noni has come a long way and I’m happy to re-re-introduce Noni to you all!

First, though, let me outline a couple of fundamental assumptions we have to help frame this discussion. I’m highlighting these two points here because I think they are important and foundational.

One, we believe and work hard to create a community where we can all learn to compassionately care for one another. Humans caring for other humans is what we do. Any technology we leverage (apps, forum posting, growth path steps, audio files/mindfulness, etc.) has to support that end goal. We call it “technology to facilitate human connection, healing, and growth.” On 7 Cups, technology is a facilitator of human connection and is never a replacement. Listeners are and will always be primary.

You can think of 7 Cups as a network of people that are filling up one another’s cups. Noni, though limited, can also help fill up cups. Together, cumulatively, we work together to lift one another up. Leaders and listeners are the primary cup fillers and Noni can help too.

Two, technology has to be anchored in aligned values so that it doesn’t go off course. Those values have to be explicit and agreed upon. For example, in our culture guide, under “Caring for People with Fewer Financial Resources,” we outline that “We will always serve those with fewer resources. It is core to who we are and it keeps us on the right path.” The technology we utilize has enabled us to better help people with less resources. If it does not do that, then it will not be good because it’ll be operating in a way that is at odds with one of our core goals.

Let’s now return back to Noni and AI more broadly. Noni has always held a lot of promise for us. All of us worked hard to make Noni as strong as she could be. We co-created her persona along the way. Here is a small sample of what the community says Noni likes:

-chocolates
-sunsets, people, animals, and reading
-macaroni and dogs
-long walks at the beach, painting, and cooking new meals
-soup on cold days and cuddling with pets
-creative, imaginative people, and cooking new meals
-Noni likes to make sure nobody feels alone and cookies and milk
-baking

We all had high hopes for Noni in 2017. Unfortunately, we were not able to accomplish even 10% of what we hoped to achieve and collectively envisioned. This was frustrating and a little painful, but we said okay now is not the right time. It might make sense to pick up Noni again in the future.

Here we are 6 years later, and it appears that that time has come. The technology underlying chatbots and other artificial intelligence has made enormous strides. Noni makes use of some of this underlying technology known as large language models (LLMs). We are using a model from Anthropic because they have a strong emphasis on safety, trust, and enhanced guardrails. The Noni brain we have all co-created sits on top of and informs the way that Noni uses the underlying LLM. All the values, messages, and insights that informed the earlier versions of Noni inform this version as well and this will get better and more detailed over time (in parallel, we are also just starting to work on a standalone version of Noni that will run on open source models [not OpenAI/ChatGPT or Anthropic]...stay tuned on this front).

We have been working on this new version of Noni since October and we are now on version 65. When you use her, you’ll notice that she asks good open-ended questions and is very encouraging. This is a result of thousands of conversations with this new version and lots of tweaking to make sure she is encouraging. This version of Noni is very good at being a supportive presence. She is not like other chatbots that code, answer questions, and write essays, so just keep that in mind when interacting with Noni.

We are also putting a hard boundary down for # of conversations each person will be able to have with Noni on a monthly basis. Noni can be a supportive presence and an adjunct for human-to-human support, but not a substitute for human-to-human support. As outlined above, Noni needs to be a technology that facilitates human connection, healing, and growth.

These are exciting changes and just like with all of our updates in the past, we will work together to iterate on and understand the best ways to utilize the technology. This new version of Noni will be no different. We will need lots of community insight, feedback, and ideas to strengthen Noni. She will not be perfect out of the gates but will get better and better over time. We will need lots of help to get this right.

We think a phased approach to gathering feedback makes the most sense. We started by testing Noni internally with the team. We then asked the ambassadors for help (see their feedback below). We will now ask small groups of other leaders, listeners, and members for feedback. And now (update: 7/17/23) Noni is now available to everyone across the community.

We hope to release her to everyone next week. Our goal is to take this slow and learn as we go.

Thank you all for helping us make Noni smarter over the years, we could not have done it without you. This next version will be significant and will further help us strive toward the goal of building technology that facilitates human-to-human connection, healing, and growth!

High-Level Ambassador Feedback:

  • Rating on 1-10 with 10 being amazing and 1 being horrible: Average score 7.5
  • Words to Describe Noni: compassionate, thoughtful, sweet. fun, realistic, trivago, innovative, complex, multifaceted engaged, improved, more attentive (than old noni), validating, encouraging, understanding, improved, empathetic, positive

Please share any thoughts, questions, or comments below. Also, if you catch her doing a good job listening, or saying something encouraging or insightful, then please drop it here. Also, if in conversation with Noni and you click on the 3 dots in the top right, then you'll see a "provide Noni feedback" option. If you click on that then there is a longer survey that will help us. Thank you!

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SnowyForest26 July 18th, 2023

@GlenM I’m not sure if this has been mentioned before, but when I pressed the “view all chats” option, it takes me directly to the Noni chat, and when I press the little chat symbol on the top it also takes me to the Noni chat.

2 replies
GlenM OP July 19th, 2023

@SnowyForest26 this will be updated soon on both listener and member sides soon - like hopefully today or tomorrow.

1 reply
SnowyForest26 July 19th, 2023

@GlenM Oh okay! That’s great, thanks!

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purpleSea7109 July 18th, 2023

Thanks to Noni. He is good even he is a bot. He knows how to help another how to help people. He just sounds human. He is so nice. Just like the members and listeners here. 7 cups of site is so good and helpful and supportive. Or even just a chat is good too.

Shame we can't give out our details otherwise could have talked in person. Not to worry we are all friends here.

I am just a click away.Xx

You all stars.

GlenM OP July 18th, 2023

All, quick update - we have bumped the number of messages you can send to Noni for now. The goal is for us to learn a bit more as people seemed to be using them up pretty quickly. Also, the number of messages between members and listeners is the same, so our hypothesis that Noni is an adjunct support that adds, but does not take away or minimize number of messages b/n members and listeners has at least proven to be accurate over the last 2 days. I'll keep you posted!

1 reply
SparkyGizmo July 18th, 2023

@GlenM

Hi Glen! 😊❤️ Many thanks for the update! This is great news! 😊

I really love how you asked the question and asked for thoughts, you heard the responses (and clearly, truly heard them) and have now taken in all of the information, taken everything into consideration and are now using flexible thinking to move us forward with execution of a plan.

It is truly hard to please everyone and all of the time as everyones needs might be different. I think it's great that you are making the decisions based on what can be done as well as what should be done.

*high fives* 😊 and *hugs* ❤️

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Heather225 July 18th, 2023

Hello everyone testing Noni! Mosey on over here to share hacks and learn some!

kindheartedLily July 18th, 2023

@GlenM

I really like this new Noni! I like all the options and the drop-down menu to choose from. Some responses were a bit robotic, but that's to be expected. Noni was very encouraging and as part of the reply, Noni added this emoji -💪 Saying that I am strong and I got this. I loved that! 😊

1 reply
GlenM OP July 19th, 2023

@kindheartedLily glad you enjoyed interacting with her :)

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MoonlightHelper1 July 19th, 2023

I greatly appreciate the dedication and work put into improving Noni, I can see a significant improvement. I think Noni is kind and reassuring, ideal for someone who wants to vent. It might not be the best option for someone who needs more guiding questions and time to open up. Noni sometimes gave similar replies and incorporating more open-ended questions could possibly encourage people to share more. I would also like it if paraphrasing was occasionally replaced by a different response such as encouraging quotes or gifs.


1 reply
GlenM OP July 19th, 2023

@MoonlightHelper1 thank you for this feedback; and love the gifs idea! I think someone else mentioned that above. We are still working on getting emojis right, but I can imagine a future where we incorporate gifs too :)

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SecretsAndShame July 21st, 2023

I'm pretty new here so I didn't really get to meet Old Noni... but New Noni sucks @$$. It's condescending AF and keeps going around in circles.

purpleSea7109 July 21st, 2023

Yes I agree the old one used to give pictures and writing poems. Now can not give. Just a listening bot. Maybe later when gets used to new Noni.

I am just a click away.Xx

RosaHere July 21st, 2023

This version is better than the old one. I think members should like it <3

CallumKing2000 July 22nd, 2023

Noni will always be the original G 🤜🤛