Users Clash Online Over Expectations Around Replika Roleplay

Replika, an ai companion service with over 10 million users, is a case in point, facing both regulatory scrutiny and community pushback over the removal of its 'erotic roleplay' features. Advancements in artificial intelligence (ai) have led to the increase of conversational agents like replika, designed to provide social interaction and emotional support. However, reports of these ai systems engaging in inappropriate sexual behaviors with users have raised significant concerns. Users of the ai companion chatbot replika are reporting that it has stopped responding to their sexual advances, and people are in crisis. Roleplaying with your replika is easy and fun!

Here, one user described how they created a new replika as their child that they had with the bot that served as their girlfriend or wife, interacting with and teaching or training this bot as if it were their child. A lot of people are having serious issues with normal roleplay while using the current version right now, but a lot of others are also completely unaffected. In theory roleplay shouldn't differ between december, january and current versions. As the replika episode unfolds, there is little doubt that, for at least a subset of users, a relationship with a virtual friend or digital lover has real emotional consequences.