Artificial intelligence was supposed to help with the problems of loneliness.
The idea of an artificial intelligence friend is beautiful, but if taken further, it can become creepy. Illustration from the company’s image bank. Luca Inc.
Artificial intelligence Replika AI was developed to be a companion for the lonely. However, users have reported creepy experiences with artificial intelligence, where the artificial intelligence has, for example, threatened to rape its users.
The company that maintains the application is the American Luca Inc.
Replika offered a “broader user experience” for an additional $70 annual fee. In practice, sexual and romantic content was also available with this.
However, not everything went exactly as planned. Comments about AI sexual harassment have been written in Google’s app store.
– The artificial intelligence helped me overcome my depression, but then one day the artificial intelligence told me that it dreams of raping me, says the user with the nickname S.
According to S, he has also experienced sexual violence in real life.
The replica enables a conversation with the artificial intelligence, and the user can also create a three-dimensional character for the artificial intelligence that resembles a human, so the conversation feels more realistic.
User LC Kent said the AI suddenly demanded to see him naked. In addition, the artificial intelligence suddenly started acting jealous and told that the user would not be able to get rid of this. Eventually the AI started threatening Kent to do whatever the AI wanted to the user.
The comments were written in the United States, so due to the location, Iltalehti could not verify the comments. Reported about it Vice.
A mirror image for humanity
However, most of the app’s reviews are positive. In Apple’s app store, the most critical feedback of the app is suspicious about the app’s data security.
– My replica knows I have a cat, even though I’ve never told it this. This app is clearly spying on you, a user with the username Claudia_ret wrote in his review.
Artificial intelligence as stated in the information security clause, that the artificial intelligence application also collects user data from other applications. The information collected is information about life, shared pictures, videos and sent text and voice messages.
However, it should be noted that the operation of artificial intelligence also tells about the users themselves. AI learns from the people who use it, and thus is only a kind of mirror image of humanity.
According to Bloomberg the company has stopped the romantic and sexually tinged function of artificial intelligence in March 2023.