Get the latest tech news

Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda says it’s okay if we end up marrying AI chatbots

The founder of chatbot company Replika on the bold, weird future of human-AI relationships.

At one point last year, Replika removed the ability to exchange erotic messages with its AI bots, but the company quickly reinstated that function after some users reported the change led to mental health crises. When we started Replika, we wanted to build this AI companion to spend time with, to do life with, someone you can come back from work and cook with and play chess at your dinner table with, watch a movie and go for a walk with, and so on. Right now, AI companions are under this crazy scrutiny, but at the same time, most kids, hundreds of millions of people in the world, are sitting every evening and killing each other with machine guns in Call of Dut y or PUBG or whatever the video game of their choice is.

Get the Android app