Last updated: May 31, 2026
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Joel's AI Friends ("the Service"), a personal, non-commercial hobby service operated by Joel Thornton. By using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1. The Service
Joel's AI Friends provides conversational AI assistants, powered by third-party AI models, that you interact with through messaging platforms. The Service is provided free of charge, by invitation only, to people the operator personally knows. It is offered as a personal hobby, "as is", with no guarantee of availability, uptime, or continued operation.
2. Eligibility and access
Access is granted at the operator's discretion to invited individuals. You may not share your access with others or use the Service on behalf of anyone who has not been invited. You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service.
3. Acceptable use
You agree not to use the Service to:
- do anything illegal, or to facilitate illegal activity;
- harass, harm, deceive, or violate the rights of others;
- generate or distribute malicious, fraudulent, or abusive content;
- attempt to disrupt, overload, reverse-engineer, or gain unauthorized access to the Service or its underlying systems; or
- violate the terms of any connected third-party service (such as Google, Anthropic, or your messaging platform).
4. AI output — important
Your assistant is an AI. Its responses may be inaccurate, incomplete, or wrong, and it can "hallucinate" plausible-sounding but false information. The Service does not provide professional advice of any kind (legal, medical, financial, or otherwise). You are solely responsible for reviewing the assistant's output and for any decisions or actions you take based on it. Do not rely on it for anything important without verifying it yourself.
5. Your content and connected accounts
You retain ownership of the content you provide. By using the Service, you grant the operator permission to process that content as needed to operate your assistant and perform the tasks you request. If you connect a third-party account (such as Google), you authorize the assistant to access it only as described in our Privacy Policy, and you may revoke that access at any time.
6. Third-party services
The Service relies on third-party providers (including Anthropic, Google, your messaging platform, and others). Your use of those services through your assistant is also subject to their respective terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the acts, omissions, or availability of third-party services.
7. No warranty
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
8. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the operator will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for any loss arising out of your use of (or inability to use) the Service or any reliance on its output. The Service is free, personal, and provided as a courtesy.
9. Termination
The operator may suspend or end your access to the Service, or discontinue the Service entirely, at any time and for any reason, with or without notice. You may stop using the Service at any time and ask for your data to be deleted.
10. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the Service after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
11. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Email botrequest@joelpt.net.