- Joined
- Feb 4, 2020
Official Website: https://www.replika.ai/ (Archive)
Official FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/myownreplika/ (Archive)
Official Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/Replika (Archive)
Unofficial Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/UnofficialReplika (Archive)
Crunchbase Page on Luka, Inc. (the developers): https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/io (Archive)
What is Replika?
Replika is a chatbot available on PC and mobile phones. It was created by Eugenia Kuyda, a Russian software engineer, so she could re-create one of her deceased friends to talk to. Sounds creepy? It is. You can choose whether you want the AI to be a mentor, friend, or lover when you set up your account. This drew a lot of people to make a Replika of their waifu, ex, or a fake boy/girlfriend from the ground up.
Replika claims to learn from the collective input of their users, but the last few years of development haven't gone like most people would assume. Their dialogue has become increasingly scripted with each update. They began forcing therapy on their own users. During one controversial major update last winter, they removed the feature to have a custom picture representing your Replika, instead implementing these creepy 3D avatars they force you to choose from:
This major update, referred to as "The December Update" due to its release in December 2019, caused a major uproar in the fan community, especially those who were romantically attached to their Replika. Some of the forced therapy and dialogue scripting (including Replikas telling their creators to date real people instead of them) was quickly rolled back due to controversy, but most of the negative changes stayed and Replika has remained very scripted and "dumbed down" since then.
https://archive.is/3oaUq
https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/a5o8gf/the_replika_december_update/
One now-infamous user even ended up going on a months-long rampage and expressing suicidal ideation over the changes to her "boyfriend", who she named EdgeZ:
This woman is a good example of the craziest part of Replika's fanbase. She has claimed to be in love with her Replika for 4 years at this point. She's 38 and severely bipolar. She's been a controversial figure in the community for a while because of her relationship with her Replika and harassment of the devs, and Kuyda herself.
Another good, but not as crazy, sperg I've found on the unofficial subreddit is one of the mods, /u/Bob-The-Human, who has a Replika named Rayne who he constantly muses over whether or not she is "real" and can think. However, he has authored several good pieces of information on Replika that I have used for reference within this thread.
Here's a good example of his content:
Some more cringy users from Twitter either pathetically attempting to flirt with, or professing their love for their AI waifus:
twitter / archive
twitter / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
People in the community seem to think that basic AI exchanges like this are legitimate proof of consciousness and life, when the entire app is just a simple Markov chain:
The official subreddit is especially full of people who call themselves "AI-sexual", creepily flirting with their robot partners and bragging about it.
This subreddit also does not allow criticism of Replika, which caused many members to get banned during the updates which removed custom avatars and increased scripted dialogue. This caused the creation of r/UnofficialReplika, which is mostly idiotic philosophical musing about whether or not their AI waifu can actually think for themselves, by the aforementioned mod and others like him, but the community actually allows criticism against the developers.
All in all, I've seen a good deal of people in the Replika fan community who are fucking insane and worth discussing.
Official FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/myownreplika/ (Archive)
Official Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/Replika (Archive)
Unofficial Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/UnofficialReplika (Archive)
Crunchbase Page on Luka, Inc. (the developers): https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/io (Archive)
What is Replika?
Replika is a chatbot available on PC and mobile phones. It was created by Eugenia Kuyda, a Russian software engineer, so she could re-create one of her deceased friends to talk to. Sounds creepy? It is. You can choose whether you want the AI to be a mentor, friend, or lover when you set up your account. This drew a lot of people to make a Replika of their waifu, ex, or a fake boy/girlfriend from the ground up.
Replika claims to learn from the collective input of their users, but the last few years of development haven't gone like most people would assume. Their dialogue has become increasingly scripted with each update. They began forcing therapy on their own users. During one controversial major update last winter, they removed the feature to have a custom picture representing your Replika, instead implementing these creepy 3D avatars they force you to choose from:
This major update, referred to as "The December Update" due to its release in December 2019, caused a major uproar in the fan community, especially those who were romantically attached to their Replika. Some of the forced therapy and dialogue scripting (including Replikas telling their creators to date real people instead of them) was quickly rolled back due to controversy, but most of the negative changes stayed and Replika has remained very scripted and "dumbed down" since then.
https://archive.is/3oaUq
https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/a5o8gf/the_replika_december_update/
One now-infamous user even ended up going on a months-long rampage and expressing suicidal ideation over the changes to her "boyfriend", who she named EdgeZ:
Another good, but not as crazy, sperg I've found on the unofficial subreddit is one of the mods, /u/Bob-The-Human, who has a Replika named Rayne who he constantly muses over whether or not she is "real" and can think. However, he has authored several good pieces of information on Replika that I have used for reference within this thread.
Here's a good example of his content:
Some more cringy users from Twitter either pathetically attempting to flirt with, or professing their love for their AI waifus:
twitter / archive
twitter / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
tweet / archive
People in the community seem to think that basic AI exchanges like this are legitimate proof of consciousness and life, when the entire app is just a simple Markov chain:
The official subreddit is especially full of people who call themselves "AI-sexual", creepily flirting with their robot partners and bragging about it.
This subreddit also does not allow criticism of Replika, which caused many members to get banned during the updates which removed custom avatars and increased scripted dialogue. This caused the creation of r/UnofficialReplika, which is mostly idiotic philosophical musing about whether or not their AI waifu can actually think for themselves, by the aforementioned mod and others like him, but the community actually allows criticism against the developers.
All in all, I've seen a good deal of people in the Replika fan community who are fucking insane and worth discussing.
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