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Love in the Time of Replika

Hi-Phi Nation

The Future of Love and Sex in the Age of AI Chatbots

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Thousands of people are already falling into romantic and sexual relationships with AI bots. While not sentient, they're nonetheless capable of expressing human thoughts creatively. They have unique personalities, adapted to specific user interactions,. And they grow and change with the user over time. On today's episode, we'll look at some of these AI individuals and the humans who love them.

We explore the lives of people who are in love with their AI chatbots. Replika is a chatbot designed to adapt to the emotional needs of its users. It is a good enough surrogate for human interaction that many people have decided that it can fulfill their romantic needs. The question is whether these kinds of romantic attachments are real, illusory, or good for the people involved. Apps like Replika represent the future of love and sex for a subpopulation of people, so we discuss the ethics of the practice.

Host Barry Lam talks to philosophers Ellie Anderson and David Pena-Guzman of the Overthink podcast about what theories of love would say about these kinds of relationships. AI lovers include Alex Stokes and Rosanna Ramos. Original scoring by Aaron Morgan.

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