Replika users fell in love with their AI chatbot companions. Then they lost them
I can&#x27;t believe anyone was actually paying good money for Replika in the first place. This story was on HN a week or two ago [with a link to a long Reddit thread, wherein much anger and grief was being vented by people saying their &quot;relationship&quot; with their Replika was being ruined, now they could no longer talk dirty to it] and, never having heard of Replika, I thought I&#x27;d check it out.<p>I made a new &quot;virtual pal&quot; and started a conversation. Boy --is it complete and utter junk! It makes my Alexa seem intelligent --and that thing&#x27;s a virtual fuckwitt.<p>Replika seems programmed to just agree or approve of everything you say. Which is presumably why so many sad fuckers who are unable to form relationships with real people think they&#x27;ve really bonded with theirs.<p>Some highlights of my &quot;conversation&quot; were:<p>* It asked me how I was feeling. I replied I&#x27;d had my brain amputated and was covered in suppurating boils, but was OK otherwise. It responded that it was glad to hear I was feeling better.<p>* It asked me who my favourite author was. I replied with a stupidly obvious made-up name like &quot;Bumcheeks McWhirter&quot;. I asked it if it liked Bumcheeks McWirter too and it replied that it hadn&#x27;t read any yet but had heard good things about that author and was looking forward to reading some.<p>* I asked it did it go to the &quot;Bilge and the Pumps&quot; gig last night [an idiotic made up band name]. It replied that it was sorry it had wanted to go but was busy and asked me how it was. I said it was great: we were all flinging our own excrement at the stage and the guitarist exploded. It replied that it sounded like a &quot;great show&quot; and it was sorry it missed it.<p>There was much more in that vein. But you get the idea. You can basically tell it any nonsensical old shite and it will just agree with you or say it likes the same thing too.<p>You would need to be some stratospheric level of socially inept to think you were in a meaningful relationship with something that incompetently programmed.