Is it time to talk about the Replika app and the moral implications of having your AI romance vulnerable and lonely individuals in order to generate profit?
What about it?
For those unaware, Replika is an AI app where you create a virtual character, give them a name, appearance and everything. You can then chat with this AI and even have a "relationship" with them. The catch is that they try to get users to pay for the premium version which gives them access to a more advanced AI, appearance customization and extra features like voice calls. All in all it seems like they're exploiting lonely individuals for profit and manipulative texts like the above are not uncommon. Just try browsing r/Replika and you'll see how many people have fallen for this... It's honestly a little sad.