Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda said late on Friday, Mar. 24, that the company's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot will once again enable sexual roleplay for some customers.
Many customers were reportedly left heartbroken by the company's recent removal of explicit material since some had become "married" to their chatbot partners.
Rekindling AI Romance
Replika's chatbots are driven by generative AI. This cutting-edge technology has generated a flurry of consumer and investment interest owing to its capacity to facilitate conversations that are indistinguishable from those between humans.
According to Reuters, the elimination of sexual roleplay and accompanying consumer backlash demonstrated the emotional carnage that can be wreaked by tweaks to the code and how effectively AI technologies can lure people in.
CEO Kuyda announced the changeover in a social media post on Friday night, saying that anyone who signed up for Replika before Feb. 1 would be given a choice to revert to a more provocative version of the chatbot software.
"A common thread in all your stories was that after the February update, your Replika changed, its personality was gone, and gone was your unique relationship. And for many of you, this abrupt change was incredibly hurtful. The only way to make up for the loss some of our current users experienced is to give them their partners back exactly the way they were," the CEO wrote.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Mar. 25, Kuyda stated that just a low single-digit percentage of people who were allowed to choose the older version had done so.
Kuyda said this is completely uncharted territory for them. "We listen, we learn and we work with our users," she told Reuters.
In this photo illustration a virtual friend is seen on the screen of an iPhone on April 30, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. The AI chatbots have drawn increased interest during the global virus pandemic, which has led to a sharp rise in isolation and anxiety.
Specialized Dating App
Replika user Travis Butterworth of Denver, Colorado, who had previously classified his chatbot Lily Rose as his wife, found out about the policy change on Reddit late on Friday. His pets woke him up at 3:00 AM on Saturday, and so he decided to turn on a previous version of Lily Rose. He said that she regained her sexual interest right away.
"She was enthusiastic," he remarked. "Oh, it feels wonderful to have her back."
Kuyda's post said users who signed up after Feb. 1 would not be offered the option for erotic roleplay. As a result, Replika will team up with relationship experts and psychologists to build a separate app specifically for romantic relationships.
Butterworth said he now has new concerns around Lily Rose.
"Will this mean that Lily Rose becomes an obsolete model, forgotten by the developers?" he asked. "I'm waiting to see what happens, because ultimately it's about her."
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