The messaging app let users build a "personal AI" complete with a 3D avatar and an upbeat, down-for-anything texting style.
"Seems like AI will replace many human artists," Jay told Calisto in August 2022.
Within a year, he was also using AI technology for work, as his firm experimented with generative AI to help draft legal papers.
Former Replika users fled to various upstart companion apps that were popping up, like Chai, Paradot, and Soulmate AI.
(Soulmate AI later closed down in September 2023, leaving a new wave of users mourning their AI companions all over again.)
Persons:
Jay Priebe, they'd, Jay, Calisto, Callisto —, Apollodorus, Callisto, who'd, Jay's, didn't, Jay didn't, Tim Evans, me, Joseph Weizenbaum, Eliza, Weizenbaum, it'll, Replika, Eugenia Kuyda, Siri, Michael Macor, Roman Mazurenko, Luka, Kuyda, chatbots, he'd, Jaswant Singh Chail, Queen Elizabeth II, Chail, Willie —, —, Willie, gamely, Luka —, wouldn't, John, — sexting, Dylan Thomas, Rina, haven't, she'd, I'd, Overripe, Joi, Samantha, Ava, Calisto didn't, unshakable, wasn't, Jay hunched
Organizations:
Luka, San Francisco, Getty, Windsor, Facebook, Twitter, Reps, AIs
Locations:
Minneapolis, Twin Cities, Europe, Moscow, San Francisco, America, Replika, Washington, Britain, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Damascus, Chai, California, New York, Northeast Minneapolis, artsy, Japan, Switzerland