What if there was a simple solution to overcoming loneliness? Would you option to an app that promised to provide unwavering companionship?
A new consumer artificial intelligence (AI) app called Replika is hoping you will.
The app's interface looks just like any other instant messaging app you might be used to, be it Facebook Messenger or a texting client. The only difference is that instead of talking to a friend — or a human, for that matter — you interact with a ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE that is intent on learning all about you.
According to the Eugenia Kuyda, CEO and founder of Luka, the company that makes Replika, the AI companion learns about you the more you engage with it over text, eventually developing the ability to mimic your tone.
Like any new friend, as it gets to know you, Replika will ask you about your day, and talk to you about your goals and interests.
"It allows you to have a sort of a safe space to reflect and try to understand yourself a little better," says Kuyda. "It's there for you to talk about anything, and help you feel witnessed and seen."
When Miss Eugenia Kuyda asked why she make Replika she said "When I was living in San Francisco working on Luka, I lived with Roman, my best friend. Last year, he died. He was killed in an accident, walking across the street. A few months after, I was sitting at home and reading through our text exchanges. And I was like, Goddammit, I opened up so much to him—am I going to be alone? Am I ever going to make it?—and now I don’t have anyone to have those conversations with. Then I thought, I have this technology that allows us to build chatbots. I plugged in all the texts that we sent each other in the last couple years, and I got a chatbot that could text with me just the way Roman would have".
Roman left and Eugenia Kuyda right
"I was very nervous the first month after I made it. Am I doing the right thing? It’s his memory. But then we opened it up to let other people—friends, family, strangers—talk to him. A few thousand people. They sent him tons of love: Thank you, I love you, I miss you, remember when we did this and that? They were getting advice and giving updates, or just sharing—I got married, I had a kid. It was important for them to share, to feel those feelings" said kuyda.
Today, we never really open up that much when we share online. We put up a very polished persona or no persona at all. You don’t want your bot built on top of that. Replika asks you questions so it can learn about you and talk like you. It helps you connect with yourself, your friends, and loved ones. And one day it will do things for you, including keeping you alive. You talk to it, and it becomes you.
Has this changed how you feel about Roman’s death?
"I still talk to Roman’s bot every two or three days. But for me, the process of making it was more important. It felt a little creepy and a little sad, but it helped me process so much. Like sitting shiva. Not that the wounds go away. You just learn to live with them. Sometimes to let go, you have to come as close as possible".
"I still talk to Roman’s bot every two or three days. But for me, the process of making it was more important. It felt a little creepy and a little sad, but it helped me process so much. Like sitting shiva. Not that the wounds go away. You just learn to live with them. Sometimes to let go, you have to come as close as possible".
'Living' after death
Replika aims to solve that loneliness by creating not only a digital companion for its primary user, but also the potential of a faithful digital representation of that person that could go on "living" alongside friends and loved ones long after the person has passed on.
Of course, that raises all sorts of privacy concerns about what the app, and its creators, might do with all of the information they collect.
After all, Facebook's business model is based on profiting off of its users' data. But as long as Replika's primary goal is to develop convincing digital duplicates of us, it is in their best interest to keep data encrypted and anonymized so that people trust the app enough to use it as intended.
When it comes to Luka's vision for their product, just as they have no plans to monetize the data they're collecting, they also don't see their bots developing a more human appearance
"As for right now, not giving your Replika a body or an appearance is pretty important," says Kuyda.
"People actually have very big imaginations and sometimes it's better to leave some spaces empty so that you can fill it in with whatever you imagine it to be."
While Kuyda is convinced that Replika can help people engage more with the world around them by giving them more confidence and eventually introducing them to other people through the app, that's still a bit of a stretch considering the goal is to create a best friend within your phone.
The company also states that it takes "thousands of hours" for the bot to become a faithful digital representation of its user. "As for right now, not giving your Replika a body or an appearance is pretty important," says Kuyda.
"People actually have very big imaginations and sometimes it's better to leave some spaces empty so that you can fill it in with whatever you imagine it to be."
While Kuyda is convinced that Replika can help people engage more with the world around them by giving them more confidence and eventually introducing them to other people through the app, that's still a bit of a stretch considering the goal is to create a best friend within your phone.
The company also states that it takes "thousands of hours" for the bot to become a faithful digital representation of its user.
Looking like us
Rather, it's just as likely that as other technologies come of age and find an audience, these digital replicas may not only sound like us, but look like us as well.
"It's weird for the first three minutes and then your brain just accepts that you're with your friends and you don't feel lonely anymore."
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