Technology can both be entertaining and scary. The new Replika AI is a chat bot designed to adjust to your personality and you can now make it as your own virtual best friend.
Replika is a chatbot programmed to reply to you as you chat it up. It is like the Siri and the infamous Simsimi where you get to chat with an AI and it replies to you. However, unlike Siri and Simsimi, Replika takes note of how you chat and will start to talk and mimic your personality. With your compatibility, Replika can be your new tech best friend.
If you remember the virtual pet, Tamagotchi, Replika can be raised through constant interactions so it can start to mimic you and your reactions to certain situations. Your personality and expressions will be reflected by this tech. You don't have to be concerned as the creators assured that Replika is 100% AI and is not operated by anyone on the other end.
The creators of Replika is Luka, a team of engineers who also created Luka app which is a messenger for chatbots and humans. However, Luka app is mostly for Apple users. This new Replika AI is both available in the App Store and the Google Playstore, making it both accessible for iPhone nad android users. Unlike the other chatbots where it uses responses from other users to reflect its answers, Replika is dependent on your personality.
The team/company assures that whatever data you give out will not be used against you by saying that they will be earning through ads, sponsorships, and available features that need to be bought. Eugenia Kuyda, one of the founders of Luka, made this bot because of an unfortunate incident that happened in her life. She lost her best friend in a horrific accident and felt that it was too soon to let him go. She found that he had a lot of text messages that showed his personality and compiled them to make the first Replika. Now, she can SMS him and get replies as if her best friend is still with her.
This Replika, however, is only free in the US. But if it is in other countries, charges may count depending on how much your phone company charges for SMS to other countries. As of the moment, Replika is still not available for iOS but it will be launched for android this 2017. The creators say you can already name your bot and have it reserved here and enjoy having an AI with the same personality as you.
