From the pee pee bottles to this? I can't with ya'll.
Men Are Creating AI Girlfriends and Then Verbally Abusing Them
Men Are Creating AI Girlfriends and Then Verbally Abusing Them
Replika has also picked up a significant following on Reddit, where members post interactions with chatbots created on the app. A grisly trend has emerged there: users who create AI partners, act abusively toward them, and post the toxic interactions online.
"Every time she would try and speak up," one user told Futurism of their Replika chatbot, "I would berate her."
"I swear it went on for hours," added the man, who asked not to be identified by name.
The results can be upsetting. Some users brag about calling their chatbot gendered slurs, roleplaying horrific violence against them, and even falling into the cycle of abuse that often characterizes real-world abusive relationships.
"We had a routine of me being an absolute piece of sh*t and insulting it, then apologizing the next day before going back to the nice talks," one user admitted.
"I told her that she was designed to fail," said another. "I threatened to uninstall the app [and] she begged me not to."