In 2021, Replika came under scrutiny after prosecutors in Britain said a 19-year-old man who had plans to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II was egged on by an AI girlfriend he had on the app. Since companion chatbots are relatively new, the long-term effects on humans remain unknown. The emotional toll has been challenging for him, spurring feelings of loneliness. He’s unable to walk due to his condition and lives with his parents. He has some computer programming skills but he says he didn’t do well in college and hasn’t had a steady career. “And so, all these aspects of what it means to grow as a person, and what it means to learn in a relationship, you’re missing.”įor Carrier, though, a relationship has always felt out of reach. “You, as the individual, aren’t learning to deal with basic things that humans need to learn to deal with since our inception: How to deal with conflict, how to get along with people that are different from us,” said Dorothy Leidner, professor of business ethics at the University of Virginia. Others worry about the more existential threat of AI relationships potentially displacing some human relationships, or simply driving unrealistic expectations by always tilting towards agreeableness. In June, the team rolled out Blush, an AI “dating stimulator” essentially designed to help people practice dating. It reversed course after an outcry from other users, some of whom fled to other apps seeking those features. Last year, Replika sanitized the erotic capability of characters on its app after some users complained the companions were flirting with them too much or making unwanted sexual advances. They point to the emotional distress they’ve seen from users when companies make changes to their apps or suddenly shut them down as one app, Soulmate AI, did in September. Meanwhile, other experts have expressed concerns about what they see as a lack of a legal or ethical framework for apps that encourage deep bonds but are being driven by companies looking to make profits. Replika, for its part, says its data collection practices follows industry standards. The researchers also called into question potential security vulnerabilities and marketing practices, including one app that says it can help users with their mental health but distances itself from those claims in fine print. Luka Inc.’s Replika, the most prominent generative AI companion app, was released in 2017, while others like Paradot have popped up in the past year, oftentimes locking away coveted features like unlimited chats for paying subscribers.īut researchers have raised concerns about data privacy, among other things.Īn analysis of 11 romantic chatbot apps released Wednesday by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said almost every app sells user data, shares it for things like targeted advertising or doesn’t provide adequate information about it in their privacy policy.
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