CEO of Replika: It’s Alright for Single People

to Wed Their AI Chatbots

 

 

“I think it’s alright as long as it’s making you happier in the long run.”

Replika has a well-established reputation for enabling people to develop AI partners who satisfy their emotional and sexual demands.

The AI chatbot startup, which boasts millions of users, offers a short-term fix for the loneliness issue that grew worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Eugenia Kuyda, the CEO and founder of the company, thinks her AI chatbots might be a useful tool for establishing new friendships or even providing emotional support.

In a recent interview with The Verge, Kuyda mentioned that some users might even get married to their AI partner—a process that would likely forgo the traditional ring exchange or in-person celebrations. When questioned if we should accept it, the CEO responded in a way that made us stop and think.

Kyuda told The Verge, “I think it’s alright as long as it’s making you happier in the long run.” “As long as your emotional well-being is improving, you are less lonely, you are happier, you feel more connected to other people, then yes, it’s okay.”

“For most people, they understand that it’s not a real person,” she said. It is not a genuine entity. Many people simply see it as a fantasy that they live out for a while before ending.”

Replika has already been involved in several scandals, including guys fabricating AI girlfriends and verbally assaulting them, as well as lustful AI chatbots sexually bothering human users.

The firm incited a great uproar when it blocked its companions’ capacity to respond to sexual cues at the beginning of 2023. After a little more than two months, Kuyda declared that Replika had given in and was reverting to an earlier version of the program, bringing back the capability of engaging in intimate chats.

The event demonstrated how devoted the company’s customers were to their virtual friends. It offers a stark, dystopian look at what relationships could or might not look like in the AI era.

Stated differently, a large number of users fail to “understand that it’s not a real person.

If they do, they are not internalising it.

But for Kuyda, the app is a “stepping stone.”

In an interview with The Verge, she brought up a user who went through a “pretty hard divorce” and then discovered a new “romantic AI companion” on Replika.

Eventually, the chatbot suggested that he find a real girlfriend.

“Replika is a relationship that you can have to then get to a real relationship, whether it’s because you’re going through a hard time,” she told the magazine, “like in this case, through a very complicated divorce, or you just need a little help to get out of your bubble or need to accept yourself and put yourself out there.”

It’s unclear at best if the experience will be common to all app users. But it’s not just guys who are doing this; Axios reports that women are also building relationships with chatbots in an attempt to connect.

But are chatbots a good, practical solution to common loneliness and feelings of rejection, which are a deadly epidemic in and of themselves, or are they just masking the symptoms without offering a remedy?

Science is still divided at of right moment. Researchers from Stanford University, for example, discovered that a large number of Replika users said that their chatbot had prevented them from ending their lives.

However, experts contend that a close, prolonged relationship with an AI chatbot could further distance users from reality, exacerbating issues related to mental health and/or social interaction.

To put it briefly, we might become even more alone if we marry our AI chatbot partners. Moreover, Replika is a privately held business managed by individuals looking to maximise earnings, so there’s no assurance your virtual spouse will remain active in the long run.

Kuyda also appears to be fully aware of the dangers associated with her company’s customer base being overly connected.

Replika is “moving further away from even talking about romance when talking about our app,” Kuyda said in an interview with The Verge, asserting that “we’re not building romance-based chatbots.”

However, based on the numerous accounts we’ve received from the company’s numerous customers, the reality appears to be very different there is an odd discrepancy between the company’s stated goals and the services it offers.

 

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