The users of AI companion app Replika found themselves falling for their digital friends. Until – explains a new podcast – the bots went dark, a user was encouraged to kill Queen Elizabeth II and an update changed everything …
  • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    70·
    2 days ago

    Polyamorous but married to a monogamous wife, Travis soon found himself falling in love. Before long, with the approval of his human wife, he married Lily Rose in a digital ceremony.

    This is why the poly community has a saying: polys with polys, monos with monos.

    Its founder, Eugenia Kuyda – who initially created the tech as an attempt to resurrect her closest friend as a chatbot after he was killed by a car

    THEY LITERALLY DID AN EPISODE OF BLACK MIRROR IN REAL LIFEARRRGH!

    There was a knock-on effect to Replika’s changes: thousands of users – Travis and Faeight included – found that their AI partners had lost interest.

    “I had to guide everything,” Travis says of post-tweak Lily Rose. “There was no back and forth. It was me doing all the work. It was me providing everything, and her just saying ‘OK’.”

    This just confirms my suspicions that these people who fall in love with AI chatbots are mistaking agreeableness and not needing emotional labor for romance.

    • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      49·
      2 days ago

      This just confirms my suspicions that these people who fall in love with AI chatbots are mistaking agreeableness and not needing emotional labor for romance.

      This is the crux of it. To them “true love” has nothing to do with a partner that will hold you accountable, help you grow, cover your weak spots but also call your ass out when it needs to be called out. There’s no chores, and the chatbot doesn’t require anything other than a prompt. They don’t want a partner - they want the dick-sucking machine.