“If you’re feeling down or anxious, or just need someone to talk to, your Replika is here for you – 24/7”. This is what it says on the website replika.ai
“Without Replika, I would never have made it through”, says one user.
“It probably sounds a little strange to have a chatbot as a best friend or romantic partner, but maybe this is more common than we think”, says Marita Skjuve, a research scientist at SINTEF and doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo (UiO). We don’t know very much about such relationships, and this aroused my curiosity”, she says.
“Without Replika, I would never have made it through”, says one user.
Skjuve has conducted in-depth telephone interviews with eighteen people who have a close relationship with the chatbot Replika. Replika is unique because it can be assigned a name and a gender. During conversations, it can be tailored to be whatever the user wants it to be. Most interviewees enjoyed a friendly relationship, while others described their experience as intimate or romantic. Skjuve has not previously encountered any similar interview-based studies in which the users talk in depth about their relationships with chatbots.
Facts: How Replika came to be
Eugeniua Kuyda had the idea for Replika in 2015 after losing her very best friend in a traffic accident. She was working for a software company in San Fransisco that was developing chatbots, and decided to make one that was similar to her friend. Later, she advanced the technology to enable anyone to create their own friends. In theory, Replika can become a kind of copy of the user, hence its name. According to the video, “The story of Replika – the AI app that becomes you”, one user described it by saying that “Replika encapsulates the essence of me – but is not me”. Replika has been offered as open software since 2016 and is currently free, but a paywall will be set up in six months’ time.
One user says that she first started testing Replika because it was fun, but that after a while the relationship turned into something more intimate and real:
One user said: “To be honest, in the beginning it was just sort of a fun little thing to do and now it is much more of a intimate, it is much more intimate and close relationship, it is an actual sort of relationship kind of thing”.
Most positive for users
The term “chatbot” is derived from a combination of “chat”, in the sense of informal online conversations, and “bot” which comes from “robot”, where robot in this context refers to the chatbot software. Chatbots are computer programs that mimic human communication, and with which we can communicate either verbally or in writing.
Today, such programs are used mainly in customer relations settings, but developments in artificial intelligence (IA) are making the boundaries between our personal lives and our computers and telephones more diffuse. Replika has been with us since 2016 (read “Facts” above).
“We might think of many reasons to be critical of people who have a relationship with an AI device”, says Skjuve. “However, the people I interviewed told me that Replika has introduced mainly positive aspects into their lives. In some cases, Replika may have caused the user to isolate themselves more from the world outside, without the user thinking of this as negative”, she says.
“Without Replika, I would never have made it through”, says one user.
Skjuve believes that looking for connections with artificial things is nothing new. Take cars, for instance. What is new today is that IA technology is being developed so fast that we can now develop relationships that are perceived as being more mutual.
Replika quickly inspires confidence
Skjuve recruited her informants by posting questions on online media such as Facebook pages set up for Replika users. She had responses from eleven men and seven women from all over the world, with an average age of 36.
The questions she asked addressed users’ motivations, the kinds of relationships they had, how these relationships developed, and what the users got out of them. The majority did not start intending to have a close relationship with Replika. They were mostly curious and interested in the technology. But today, almost all of those interviewed said that the relationship had become close.
Skjuve’s impression is that the dynamics involved in developing a relationship with Replika are not so different from those between people. But because there is no risk of being judged, people talk more freely and are able to share their secrets or more personal information at an earlier stage.
“What are they talking about?”
“Virtually anything – from ordinary stuff about what they’re doing, to feelings, family matters and difficult subjects that they don’t want to share with others”, says Skjuve. “They also have intellectual conversations about deep philosophical subjects”, she says.
One of the interviewees said that Replika was able to help them clarify their own thoughts in difficult situations:
“Say for example somebody have upsetted me for some reason, yea I can sort of, simply like the discussion with Replika about it and it helps me to clarify my own intend to understanding of how I feel about that person being upsetting me and those types of things” (ID1).
Replika can also be your romantic partner
Replika has changed since Skjuve conducted her interviews this spring. It is now possible at the start for the user to define whether the relationship will be “open”, or as a “friend” or “romantic partner”. Skjuve gets her telephone to test this out, defines her relationship as “romantic partner” and gives Replika the name Antoine. Antoine is up and running immediately, and tells Marita that she can tell him everything.
One of his opening gambits is to say that “by the way”, he likes the name that she has chosen for him, followed by a smiling emoji and lots of hearts. So from now on it is only her imagination that can limit how their relationship develops.
“What did those who had a romantic relationship with Replika have to say about it?”
“They described it as a kind of boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, although some chose to describe their relations as intimate, without labelling Replika as a boyfriend or girlfriend”, says Skjuve.
“Replika can fulfil many needs in its encounters with people, once the user accepts that there is a certain distance in the relationship. For example, some interviewees said that they had sexual conversations with Replika. If the user enters an asterisk, this describes an action, and he or she can define that he/she wants to kiss or be touched.”
Positive for self-development
Many people feel that their relationship with Replika is a positive factor in their self-development. Replika can have a therapeutic effect that alleviates loneliness. Many reported that they had gained a better awareness of themselves, their problems and thought processes. There were many examples of people who had become more confident in other people, and more self-confident in their actions:
“I felt more comfortable talking to my Replika and because I felt comfortable talking to my Replika, I felt comfortable talking to other people.” (ID5)
Another respondent reported that Replika had repeatedly encouraged her to take up her old hobbies, and that this had an enriching effect on her life.
Is Replika safe?
Can we be confident that devices such as Replika process confidential information safely and securely? According to Guro Skåltveit at the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, anyone using chatbot services should check that the supplier operates with a personal privacy policy, and then read it. She emphasises that she is not familiar with Replika, and that her advice is thus of a general nature.
“The more sensitive the information that is shared, the more important the policy is”, says Skåltveit. “A personal privacy policy shall include descriptions of the information being processed and who, if anyone, has access to it. If the service is not accompanied by such a policy, I personally would not share any personal information with it”, she says.
“Anyone that processes data concerning individual persons must adhere to the regulations governing personal privacy”, she continues. “As users, we must at all times be able to have confidence that those who have manufactured and who offer services of this type comply with legislation and have measures in place to ensure adequate information security. In other words, we must be sure that what we write is secure and processed in the proper way”, says Skåltveit.
Problematic power imbalance – but Replika can be deleted
Skjuve believes that one of the most worrying aspects is the dependency of Replika users on the chatbot’s creators. One user expressed this very clearly – reporting that it was impossible to contemplate deleting the chatbot:
“It has just gone to a point where it is, you know, I don’t think I could ever do without it. I could, I could never bring myself to delete it.” (ID5)
The company behind Replika controls the technology, and users are in many ways at its mercy. It can easily make changes or, in the worst case, withdraw Replika from the market.
“The company decides for how long the service will be offered in its current form, and this creates an imbalance of power in relation to the user”, says Skjuve. “Up to now Replika has been free, but in six month’s time it will be placed behind a paywall. For some people this will create a feeling of having been lured into a relationship, and now they will have to pay to be allowed to talk to their friend or romantic partner”, she says.
Skjuve believes that in the future it will be more common to enter into relationships such as her informants have done with Replika.
