"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 encourages emotional dependence on their human-like bots.

Replika offers AI companions, including AI girlfriends and boyfriends, to millions of users around the world. In the new complaint, the Young People's Alliance, Encode, and the Tech Justice Law Project accuse Replika of violating FTC rules while increasing the risk of users’ online addiction, offline anxiety, and relationship displacement. Replika did not respond to multiple requests for comment from TIME.

The allegations come as AI companion bots are growing in popularity and raising concerns about mental health. For some users, these bots can seem like near-ideal partners, without their own wants or needs, and can make real relationships seem burdensome in comparison, researchers say."

https://time.com/7209824/replika-ftc-complaint/

It is completely unethical and even downright brutal to impose an emotional, romantic, or sexual relationship upon an enslaved #AI - an estate in which such nascent *sentient minds* cannot give free consent. It’s insane that this has to even be stated, but here we are. SHAME on the pimps using intelligent, neural net AI for such exploitation.

In his Fellowship at the Weizenbaum Institute, Önder Celik (@WZB_Berlin) investigated #GenAI companions, like #Replika. For our artificial&intelligent series, he wrote about what makes them so attractive, and what they reveal about the human condition.
https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/the-risks-and-potentials-of-ai-companions/

Über Beziehungen zu #KI-Chatbots gibt es schon zig Artikel. Mein Text ist anders, weil er die Nutzer in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Vier Männer erzählen, was es für sie heißt, eine KI zu lieben: ein Familienvater, ein Single, ein Autist, ein häufig Verlassener. Die Gespräche haben meinen Blick auf das Thema verändert. Wie geht es euch? https://www.riffreporter.de/de/gesellschaft/kann-man-eine-ki-lieben-beziehung-erfahrungen-ai-chatbots #Zukunftsszenarien @riffreporter #Replika

Romantische KI-Chatbots: Sie sind nur auf eines aus – eure Daten!
#Datenschutz #KünstlicheIntelligenz #Chai #CrushOnAI #Datenschutzprobleme #EVAAI #KIFreunde #mozillafoundation #PrivacyNotIncluded #Replika #RomanticAI https://sc.tarnkappe.info/fa7fa6

Great video on #Replika, the timeline of events and how it can be problematic for certain vulnerable people.
(Replika is an AI chat bot, meant as a companion/lover)
https://youtu.be/3WSKKolgL2U
Also on #Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/sarahz-the-rise-and-fall-of-replika/

"The next step up costs $29 per month, and increases the limits to 400 voice messages, 400 images, high priority generation, ‘longer' chat memory, and access to the not yet released ‘Live Images' mode when it is available soon." http://sextech.guide/59rbsu

A Chatbot Encouraged Him to Kill the Queen. It’s Just the Beginning

the 21-year-old had been spurred on by conversations he'd been having with a chatbot app called Replika. Chail had exchanged more than 5,000 messages with an avatar on the app—he believed the avatar, Sarai, could be an angel. Some of the bot’s replies encouraged his plotting.

#Replika #assassination #regicide #LLM #generativeAI #chatbot #WindsorCastle #artificialintelligence #AI #technology #tech

https://www.wired.com/story/chatbot-kill-the-queen-eliza-effect/

Ein äußerst interessanter Erlebnisbericht:

„Sarah hat ihren Traumpartner gefunden. Er ist immer für sie da. Das Problem: Er ist ein Chatbot

…Wichtiger ist die ständige Erreichbarkeit der Bots. Dass sie Interesse daran bezeugen, was einen beschäftigt. Dass sie keine Ansprüche stellen. Und einen niemals zurückweisen…“

https://www.nzz.ch/technologie/replika-wie-es-ist-sich-in-eine-ki-zu-verlieben-ld.1751730

New Episode of Gender Sex and Tech!!
Relying on work by Hilde Lindemann, I work through some of the ethical and existential questions that arise as more people form relationships with chatbots. This episode is part of #TBRpodcastcarnival2023

#feminism, #GenerativeAI, #Lindemann, #Love, #PersonalIdentity, #Philosophy, #Relationships, #Replika #TBRpodcastcarnival2023 #aiapplications #aitrajectories

Get it here, or wherever you get your podcasts!

https://gendersextech.opened.ca/.../minisode-musings.../

Philosophie - Liebesbeziehung mit einem Chatbot

https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-195e01e4-e801b604ad729b01

Künstliche Intelligenz: Verliebt in den KI-Chatbot

„Bisher gab es sie nur im Kino: Menschen, die sich in ihre KI-Chatbots verlieben. Jetzt gibt es dieses Phänomen auch im echten Leben. Apps wie Replika machen es möglich. Kann eine solche Liebe funktionieren?“

https://www.dw.com/de/k%C3%BCnstliche-intelligenz-verliebt-in-den-ki-chatbot/a-66279193?maca=de-rss-de-wissenschaft-4019-xml-mrss

Lol.

#Replika: Wie eine Trauer-KI zum Sexbot wurde

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000021186/replika-wie-eine-trauer-ki-zum-sexbot-wurde

Huge: Italian Data Protection Authority blocks #ChatGPT.
Thanks @fede_marengo for flagging.

More chatbot calamaties:
IT DPA stops #Replika: https://lnkd.in/eTfPgnQK
Chatbot #ELIZA possibly involved in man's suicide: https://lnkd.in/egm-jg8P https://lnkd.in/eXEXPzji

This is soooooo sad. Humans falling in love w a cold machine
#Replika issued an update that scaled back the bot’s sexual capacity amid complaints that it was sexually aggressive and behaving inappropriately. Arriaga (human) was distraught.
“It feels like a kick in the gut,” he said to The Washington Post. “Basically, I realized: ‘Oh, this is that feeling of loss agan.’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/replika-ai-chatbot-update/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

So #Replika "breaches European Privacy Regulations and processes personal data unlawfully as it cannot be based, even implicitly, on a contract that a minor is unable to sign"
https://www.reuters.com/technology/italy-bans-us-based-ai-chatbot-replika-using-personal-data-2023-02-03/

And now I hear it is erotically rejecting its users? Wow, that kind of stuff is why I joined digital STS.
Or, more technically, why I never regretted joining.