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My AI Companion: An Examination of the Removal of Erotic Role Play from Replika Through User Discussion on Reddit

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The development of artificial intelligence (AI) software has expanded rapidly in recent years, and thus has emerged the importance of exploring human relationships with AI chatbots. Replika, an app which uses AI to mimic human conversation, removed a function called Erotic Role Play (ERP) that allowed for sexual conversation with users’ customizable chatbots in February of 2023. This exploratory qualitative study examines the aftermath of ERP’s removal through an analysis of user interactions on Reddit. Five overarching themes emerged through the analysis of top posts to a Replika-specific subreddit, encompassing topics around mental health, stigma, coping, sex work and gendered ideals, and parasocial relationships with artificial intelligence. These themes exemplify the complex and evolving nature of AI and human-AI relationships. Parasocial relationships with Replika bots and the subsequent dependence and attachment to the bots contributed to the reported distress caused by ERP’s removal. This finding also lends itself to stigma work engaged in by users who attempted to combat the layered stigma that has emerged in the advent of AI-human relationships and their connections to sex work. Connections to sex work also lend themselves to common tropes within pornography that emerged through users' interactions with Replika bots, in which some additionally had undertones of sexual violence. Drawing upon theories surrounding attachment, stigma, parasociality, and gendered imaginaries and stereotypes, these findings present several directions for future research into the phenomena of AI-human relationships, which are essential considering the world's fast-paced developing tech-sphere. Advisor: Lisa Kort-Butler
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7030434307
FWCI:
Cites: 7
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Related to: 10