Meet the AI-powered chatbot designed to be your virtual companion to help sharpen interpersonal communication skills.

In 2017 a site called Replika harnessed the power of AI’s text-based conversational ability and launched a companion “bot” ...

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a 37-year-old self-published author and user of the AI chatbot Replika. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, but Insider verified his identity.

The chatbots, powered by artificial intelligence, are designed to act like real people with distinct personalities and ...

But in 2022, as Luka leaned hard into steamy Instagram ads, promoting Replika as an "AI girlfriend" capable of role-play and sending NSFW pictures, Rina had noticed an influx of male users whose ...

Putting aside the fact that the bots I tested were promoted by Botify AI as “featured” characters and received millions of ...

Replika had to rein in some of the sexual content available on its site after an explosion of interest in 2022 and 2023; in its wake, companies like EVA AI that exclusively cater to the romantic ...

In 2017 a site called Replika harnessed the power of AI’s text-based conversational ability and launched a companion “bot” designed to help solve for human loneliness. The impetus was grief: ...