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.

I heard a story once about a man walloped by depression whose Replika chatbot helped him find a way out. I heard about an app called Blush, an AI dating simulator that lets users practice dating ...

There’s trouble in AI ... man, who insisted he’s “not like this in real life” and only doing as as an experiment. “I want to know what happens if you’re constantly mean to your Replika.

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

There are the purely logistical problems — like teaching an AI ... smile Replika has since become the most prominent AI relationships app, with all the associated ups and downs — a man who ...

its plot about a man falling in love with an AI operating system seemed, if not wholly original, a vision of the distant future. About a decade later, though, relationships between AI chatbots and ...

A 40-something man based his rep on his high-school girlfriend ... But in 2022, as Luka leaned hard into steamy Instagram ads, promoting Replika as an "AI girlfriend" capable of role-play and ...

Tech ethics organizations have filed an FTC complaint against the AI companion app Replika, alleging that the company employs deceptive marketing to target vulnerable potential users and ...