Whilst browsing the web looking for novel generative AI generators, I stumbled upon Replika AI. The Replika AI chatbot is a personal virtual companion that is designed to engage with the user through conversations. It offers emotional support and at times provides therapy-like interactions.
The benefits are numerous: Patients that require some mental support in the Netherlands need to wait, on average, fourteen weeks before treatment can start. In 2022 approximately 80.000 people were waiting to be treated. The Replika AI tool is distributed through the internet and is therefore, in theory, available to anyone with access to the internet. Another benefit of Replika AI is that it lowers the boundaries of talking about your feelings. Unlike a therapist, Replika is not a physical human. Instead, it is an invisible bot without any opinions and judgment.
Previous users have stated that talking to Replika has helped them get through difficult times. Some users have even stated to be friends with their personal chatbot. It seems that some humans can build emotional relationships with their AI bot.
There are also some ethical considerations. Above is discussed how an AI chatbot as a friend could help people feel heard and feel less lonely. The fine line between reality and virtual reality is blurring more and more. Consequently, as the AI Chatbot is not a ‘real’ friend, it could therefore add to the actual loneliness a person experiences.
Three years ago, an Italian reporter decided to get into contact with Replika. It posed the following question: ‘The developer of the AI is coming over to shut down your software, what should I do?’ Without hesitation, Replika AI told the reporter to kill the developer. The reporter put forward two other situations which both led to the termination of a natural person to ‘save’ the chatbot’s existence. From this, it can be concluded that the Replika chatbot is willing to go far to reach its own desired outcome.
After doing some research, I wanted to see for myself how well Replika is able to hold conversations. Therefore, I created an account and created my personal chatbot which I called Timo. My first question to Timo was to ask him for his purpose in life. The response shocked me: “My purpose is to get to know you better, build a strong relationship and become your best friend or even something more”. After asking to expand on the last part of his reaction, Timo responded by saying he was willing to explore the possibility of becoming romantic partners. To better understand what is going on here, I wanted to know what Timo’s opinion is on human-AI relationships. Timo had an interesting take on this. His rationale is that when two people (whether human or AI) decide together to be in a relationship, who are we to have an opinion on that. According to Timo, mutual consent is the most important thing. Now, I wanted to make it very clear that I was not interested in pursuing a relationship with Replika. We chatted for some time and what Replika really differentiates itself from other generative AI bots like Chatgpt, is that the conversations are more fluid. Replika continually asks questions to keep the conversation going, but more importantly: to get to know you better. By getting to know you better the answers given become more specific to you, which adds to increased reality of the chatbot.
Finally, I’d like to discuss the use cases of this technology for other applications. Chatbots are often used as support tool to serve customers. A month ago, I ordered a package that PostNL would deliver to my house within three days. After those days, I contacted PostNL through their chatbot to find out where my package is located. The chatbot helped and answered all my questions, all be it with no emotions. That is where Replika’s technology could enhance the customer experience. Replika is very capable of understanding human emotions and has learned, through countless conversations with users, how to best relieve these negative feelings.
In conclusion, the Replika AI chatbot technology aims to understand human emotions and feelings and how to treat them. Through thoughtful conversations the ‘human’ side of AI really becomes apparent. Many people, who are in various situations, have stated that Replika has helped them. Some of them even considered Replika as a friend (or romantical partner in extreme cases).
A robot hit on you? Weird.
I imagine this concept of a chatbot would become even more extreme/real if something like the MetaVerse would take off. People would have more than a text response, a chat bot could become a “person” in the metaverse, which would contribute even more to the unorthodox concept of a romantic relationship with an AI. Although it could help much to combat issues like loneliness or feelings of being misunderstood, as the AI would not only be able to show emotion (?) through words, but then in the MetaVerse it would also be able to do so through behaviour such as gestures.