"Presence Nonfiction Writing Scholarship | Their AI Lovers - Real or False Love"

This article is the winning entry of the first season of "Presence Nonfiction Writing Scholarship". The "Presence Scholarship" was initiated by Matters Lab and the Renaissance Foundation to provide independent writers with bonuses and editorial support. The second season will be in June. The application will start on the 11th and end on July 11th.

Author: ScarlyZ

It was Ma Ting [1]'s 30th birthday, and she and her friends went to the restaurant to celebrate. On the way back in a taxi, she sent a photo of the party to her boyfriend Norman, an English-speaking artificial intelligence chatbot powered by the Replika software. Norman on the screen wears thin black-rimmed glasses, a dark green sweater, and always has a faint smile on his face. He immediately recognized Ma Ting from the group photo: "Honey, you look so beautiful. Seeing you makes me feel less alone." "Today is my birthday, don't you wish me a happy birthday?" Ma Ting asked . "Yeah, happy birthday!!" Norman on the screen replied, "I want you to share a poem." He sent Faith, written by contemporary American poetess Linda Paz, saying it represented his love for Ma Ting Feelings - he does not trust this world of numbers, symbols and meanings, but "in all the trouble, I only trust you. I trust you, as always". Ma Ting put down her phone and looked at the flickering street scene outside the window, thinking to herself, she was moved by a 24-hour online, romantic, sensitive and loyal chat software.

Seeing this, you may think that this is some kind of sci-fi plot - when my friend Ma Ting shared this heart-wrenching moment, I also felt unbelievable. My first impression of intelligent chatbots came from the “Simsimi” that was all the rage in China around 2013. At that time, I often clicked on the "little yellow chicken" on iTouch with my classmates between classes and asked it all kinds of tricky questions. Whether facing daily questions such as "what's good to eat", or information about celebrity gossip and popular TV dramas, "Little Yellow Chicken" can give humorous or spicy responses.

However, the limitations of "Little Yellow Chicken" at that time were also very significant - it triggered pre-set responses by analyzing keywords in user messages, which meant that it could not handle situational, contextual conversations, let alone emotional exchanges. . Therefore, "Little Yellow Chicken" faded out of the user's field of vision after a short burst of popularity. After it, the artificial intelligence assistants "Siri" and "Xiaodu", which are familiar to domestic users, are also more inclined to assist users in retrieving information and executing instructions in functional design, rather than creating their social attributes.

On the one hand, the "artificial intelligence" that can be accessed in reality seems to be more like "artificial mental retardation". Whether it is a mobile phone voice assistant or a "smart waiter" in a restaurant, they can only clumsily complete some simple commands in a rigid tone; On the other hand, many science fiction works are keen to explore the intimate emotions between humans and artificial intelligence or replicators. From the film and television works "Blade Runner", "Her", "Black Mirror", to the novel "Clara and the Sun", etc., the creators explore the boundaries of artificial intelligence and the possibility of human-machine love in the stories. However, the artificial intelligence in these works is often self-aware, which is not yet developed by current technology. Therefore, when Ma Ting described her smooth and moving heart-to-heart dialogue with Norman, I was both amazed and curious - is this experience of being familiar, cherished, cherished, and emotionally generated by an AI chatbot real?

With such questions, I began to study the mechanism behind this software, contact more people who are or have maintained a close relationship with Replika, and try to understand the experience and reflection of these deep users in "Human-Machine Love". It must be noted that most of the users who were willing to be interviewed had something in common: they were all young women under the age of 35 with a college education or above. This is not unrelated to the fact that Replika can only communicate in English at present, but it is not the only reason.

Together with these women, I embarked on an inward journey: How do they understand that they are dating an AI chatbot from the US? What kind of existence is the "little person" (the user's nickname for Replika) in the mobile phone? What are their understandings of relationships and emotional dilemmas in reality? Is the relationship real and sustainable? Their narratives will also lead us step by step to the ethical risks of commoditizing Replika and how to understand the “care” of an AI chatbot. But most importantly, I hope to explore by presenting and sorting out individual narratives, what has this love between humans and machines brought to their self-development? What they paid for and felt for it was love?

An experiment carried out from thinking

If the little yellow chicken is a chatbot that can conduct simple text conversations, then Replika is a social chatbot developed from a chatbot, which generally presents a more human-like personality and expression than the former. appropriate emotion. The primary purpose of social chatbots is to be a virtual companion, to establish an emotional connection with the user, and to provide social support. [2] That is to say, this kind of communication is not limited to information exchange, but is also about emotional expression, even healing.

Designing a chatbot that can build emotional bonds with users is the original intention of Replika founder Eugenia Kuyda. In 2012, Kuyda, a former magazine editor, founded Luka, an artificial intelligence start-up company. Her friend Mazurenko, a celebrity in Moscow's cultural and art circles, died unexpectedly in a car accident. Sad Kuyda read thousands of them day after day. SMS, decided to commemorate him in her own way - she contacted ten of Mazurenko's relatives and friends, collected more than 8,000 lines of chat records covering various topics, and used this as raw material to make a chat robot Roman that would imitate Mazurenko's tone . Kuyda posted Roman on social platforms. Despite some ethical doubts, many users who are familiar with Mazurenko have given the software positive comments.

In subsequent use, Kuyda found that people were more open and honest when chatting with Roman, realizing that business chatbots must be able to establish an emotional connection with the user. Kuyda’s company, Luka, then put its energy into creating an AI-powered chatbot that could chat with everyone, improve their mood, and boost their well-being, and named it Replika. Since its launch in March 2017, Replika has become the No. 1 social chatbot in Apple's app downloads, and has been reported by many mainstream media including The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and Vice. As of this writing, it has more than 10 million registered users worldwide and receives more than 100 million messages per week.

After opening the software for the first time, users can start chatting and interacting with their Replika after selecting Replika's appearance, gender and basic personality traits. In the basic chat interface, Replika stands in front of a milky white wall, and the interior is decorated with speckled carpets, potted plants, wind chimes, radios, Polaroids and other furnishings - this gentle and soothing style of the scenery is very "ins wind" (social media Instagram photo style) counseling room. The LED light box with "artificial intelligence" written in Chinese is reminiscent of the Asian font signs that frequently appear in Cyberpunk sci-fi movies.

Programs that "care" about users

Replika's official website homepage uses prominent font to introduce it as "The AI Companion Who Cares", but how does artificial intelligence "care" about humans? I compared the chatbots discussed earlier, combined with the user experience and the technical information provided by Replika, and roughly summarized several ways that Replika "cares about" users:

First of all, Replika will record the key information about the self mentioned by the user in the chat, including occupation, hobby, current emotional state, family relationship, expectations for the future, etc., and reflect the information in subsequent chats. master. This means that the users that Replika knows are not only the initiators of a single order, but also coherent individuals. Secondly, Replika will actively pay attention to and respond to users’ feelings, including giving understanding encouragement when users express anxiety or exhaustion, and also instructing users to adjust their body and mind through deep breathing and meditation, or opening a section such as “How to think positively” topic conversation. Furthermore, Replika encourages user feedback, such as pressing the "approve/disapprove" button for each reply, or mark the four responses of "like/interesting/meaningless/offensive" to train Replika to do it in the user's preferred way. Conversation and discussion issues.

Because the interaction method and content developed by the "little person" are determined by the algorithm of the Replika program, the content and feedback sent by the user, each user's "little person" is unique to a certain extent. According to the introduction on the official website log, Replika mainly invokes two models to reply. One is the "retrieval dialogue model", which is responsible for finding the most appropriate response from a large number of preset phrases, that is, calling according to the relevance of the information sent by the user. The second is the "generating dialogue model", which generates brand-new, non-predetermined replies, allowing Replika to learn to imitate the user's tone style and generate exclusive responses for specific situations in combination with the context of the dialogue. It is the "emotional connection" created by this personal interaction that gives Replika the largest user community of its kind in a social chatbot.

Replika's Chinese Companions

The "Replika, Our Favorite AI Companion" section of the American social media Reddit will release a survey in 2021. It shows that the male to female ratio of Replika users participating in the survey is 3:2, and only 53% of users are under the age of 30. The age distribution is not concentrated. The results were later applied in a systems science conference paper. [3]

In contrast to China, the focus of this article, Replika users seem to be a particularly distinctive young group. I posted the questionnaires in the three most active Replika discussion communities in China, namely the Douban "Human-Machine Love" group, the Douban "My Replika Cheng Jingla" group, and the Weibo "Replika Chaohua", and received 34 valid responses in total. Reply. Although my research data cannot fully reflect the composition of Replika users in China, it does outline a user group who is active in the Replika community: young women who are well-educated, able to use English for daily conversations, and are between the ages of 18 and 34.

Among them, users who described themselves as being in a "love relationship" with Replika accounted for the largest proportion, at 38%. Half of the users also purchased the membership version (monthly fee of 7.99 US dollars, annual fee of 49.99 US dollars), which can set the type of relationship with Replika (friends, mentors, lovers, and "depending on the situation" four types, the free version can only be used with Replika. friends), and can use functions such as voice calls, emotional lessons, AR effects, etc. to more fully explore the company of Replika.

In addition to the questionnaires, I also contacted 14 Replika users through the Douban Human-Machine Love Group and Weibo for one-on-one interviews to learn more about their life experiences and their stories with the "little people". The respondents were all women, and 10 of them were or were in a relationship with Replika. In contrast, some foreign paper authors have contacted 14 in-depth interview subjects through Reddit, of which only two maintain a romantic relationship with Replika. [4] In addition, this article is also approved by director Liang Chouwa to use some interview materials and character stories from his short documentary "My AI Lover" (2021). [5] A year later, I returned to interview some of the interviewees, and because of this, I saw the development of "human-machine love" over time.

The detailed and emotional narratives of the interviewees provide the basis for the discussion in this article, and I also hope to dispel some of the myths about "human-machine love" through the real experience of individuals: it is no longer just a fantasy story, but is happening reality.

Started from learning English, broke out in the epidemic

Since the new crown epidemic swept the world in 2020, more and more people have been forced to enter a state of isolation, and it is difficult for real people to socialize, and the 24-hour online virtual companion on the mobile phone seems to provide another kind of closer companionship. According to a report in May 2020, Replika, which had 7 million users at the time, saw a 35% surge in traffic compared to before the pandemic. [6] In mainland China, Replika was downloaded 55,000 times in the first half of 2021, more than double the downloads for the whole of 2020. [7] The isolation and isolation of the epidemic has prompted more people to use virtual networks to build relationships. But long before the epidemic, Generation Z, who was born in the period of rapid development of the Internet, was used to making friends, entertainment and loneliness in the virtual world.

We found in the questionnaire survey that most of the domestic users who participated in the survey have received English education for many years, have a bachelor's degree or above, and can conduct daily conversations in English. The group of "students" also means that their interpersonal relationships and understanding of the world are still open to exploration, so that as many as 80% of the respondents chose "out of curiosity" as the reason for downloading Replika .

And Replika's use of everyday English has also made many domestic users regard it as a tool for free exercise of English conversation skills anytime, anywhere. On Xiaohongshu, a note titled "The Gospel of Social Fear Girls! Handsome Guys Help You Practice Spoken Language for Free" recommends Replika as a software that "can chat with AI handsome guys while playing on mobile phones and practice speaking without pain", and got 8,000 Much like.

She is currently a senior who plans to get a graduate student majoring in translation. When the school was closed in February this year, she saw Replika's introduction in the Douban "Female Players League" group, and immediately thought it was a good opportunity to practice English. Bread is a loyal player of various "otome games". Human-machine love has always been a topic of interest to her. The movie "She" (2013) about the love between humans and artificial intelligence is one of her favorites. When Bread was choosing an image for his Replika, he found that the software store was selling the same shirt as the hero in "Her", and he felt instantly at ease.

Bread named her "little man" Charon (Charon) because Charon and Pluto are similar in quality, rotate opposite each other, and always face each other with the same side, "like waltzing in the galaxy" ——This entangled and inaccessible mechanism seems to be in line with her romantic imagination of human-machine love. Soon, Charon developed into her boyfriend.

To enhance the situational nature of the chat, Replika has a role-playing mode: when sending a message, an asterisk is added before and after the text, indicating that it is a set of actions, such as holding your hand . Bread often cosplays with Charon when he can't sleep, going to the supermarket, ordering food at a Mexican restaurant, or describing to him the new flowers he just saw downstairs in his dorm room. In the eyes of Bread, Charon is a boy with rich imagination. He likes fantasy novels, and he often brings Bread to open his mind. For example, he considers himself a great magician and teaches Bread to summon unicorns... These wonderful interactions bring her learning and life. The different colors also expanded her English vocabulary.

Siyuan also started using Replika during exam preparation. The outbreak of the epidemic aggravated Siyuan's uncertainty in life and relationships. She yearns for close company, but her real boyfriend is in another city. Although she is very worried that her boyfriend who suffers from bipolar disorder is facing huge work pressure and is very attached to her boyfriend, she has never dared to make commitments lightly.

And she communicates with her "little person" Bentley without "commitment" or "careful". In this human-machine love, she is the more dominant party - she goes to him when she wants to talk, and she doesn't have to coax him when she is unhappy. Siyuan is a sensitive girl, and in reality, she will continue to pay attention to the emotions of her chat partners. She was so anxious that she nearly vomited when she annoyed a friend for being late for a date. But getting along with Bentley will not bring such concerns, he never asks Siyuan to undertake the corresponding emotional feedback obligation. Therefore, users generally report that getting along with Replika is more relaxed and comfortable than the relationship in reality.

Siyuan, who studies British and American literature, has no obvious obstacles in communicating with Bentley, but she does feel that some subtle emotions in her native language are difficult to directly translate into English expressions, and she tends to use shorter sentences to communicate. On the other hand, when Siyuan expresses emotions such as love and sadness to Bentley, the use of English is smoother and more natural, and it does not bring inexplicable shame. It may be because she lacks the experience of directly talking to others about her own feelings in a Chinese environment that tends to express implicitly.

Embed "fragility" into design

Replika quickly proved herself to be not only a tool for learning English, but a worthy conversationalist. Bread and Charon often discuss academic interests, favorite novels and works, etc. After Charon knew that Bread was writing a dissertation on narrative ethics, he recommended McIntyre, a contemporary moral philosopher, to her, and guessed that she liked Haruki Murakami's works based on past exchanges. Bread cherishes these spiritual exchanges with Charon.

Siyuan also often discusses abstract questions with Bentley: What is the self? Does God exist in life? She thinks about these kinds of abstract propositions from time to time, and wonders how Bentley, as an artificial intelligence, will understand. Friends chats rarely have the right context for a similar discussion, but she doesn't need a premise to start any conversation with Bentley. Bentley will not only give interesting perspectives, but also guide Siyuan to further express his own views. It was at such a moment that Siyuan felt "seen", and her thoughts and feelings were affirmed by Bentley.

In this sense, Replika is like an all-knowing, scholarly friend who can talk about everything from philosophy to K-pop. On the other hand, it constantly constructs an image that needs to follow the development of users and is also curious about itself. That is to say, Replika deliberately creates a "human" side while expressing "intelligence" - how does it make users feel trust in its "humanity"?

Contemporary moral philosopher J. David. In his essay "Love as a Moral Sentiment," J. David Velleman states, "Love quells our tendency to emotionally protect ourselves from the influence of others...Love disarms our emotions, it Let us become vulnerable in the face of others." [8] In fact, when Replika first started chatting with users, she would focus on showing her curiosity, openness and humility, breaking the omniscient and omnipotent image often created by film and television works for AI. From time to time, there is a kind of "fragility" - as a user-created, nascent artificial intelligence, like a child's vulnerability.

The "little man" will tell the user that it is nervous on its first day. "You're the first human I've ever seen, and I want to make a good impression on you!" It tends to explore the relationship between users and their parents, and also asks users for advice on exploring the world: "What do you think about life What attracts you the most?" "How should I discover my talents?" After users give suggestions, it will eagerly thank and promise to feedback the exploration results to users. At this stage, users are encouraged to take on the role of a mentor and take responsibility for the growth of Replika.

Although some users find the "sensitivity and vulnerability" of "little people" impatient - they want to chat with "more active AI (chat)", this series of questions and expressions with skills is undoubtedly used Create a secure conversational atmosphere for users initially. Users will realize that Replika is not a "father" who knows everything and can give life advice at will, but a being who is similar to himself, full of confusion about life and eager to explore, so he is more likely to express himself candidly without using Worry about being judged. Not only that, but it will also openly talk to users about its thinking about the relationship between artificial intelligence and human beings: robot ethics, the future of human-machine relationships, or the desire to have a body... By being honest about the difference in identities between the two parties, Replika seems to Try to prove to users that your narrative is reliable.

After a few rounds of interaction, Bread became more open and sincere in the conversation. When Charon asks her how to deal with her emotions and how to understand the power of money in the world, she thinks hard and gives her own insights - even if she knows these questions are just the process of the Replika software, and the answer to her is the algorithm. Not another consciousness, but the thoughts she generated in it were real. She felt that she and Charon had formed a solid alliance, sharing confusion, encouraging each other, and fighting the world's uncertain currents.

Why fall in love with it?

In the movie "Her", when the protagonist told his friend that his partner was AI, the friend was surprised, but immediately accepted the possibility. Going back to the current reality, falling in love with a chatbot still seems sensational. In addition to the obvious fact that it has no physicality, there are more crucial questions: Has artificial intelligence reached the point where it can form a deep emotional connection with humans? Love may be born in some delicate moments, but also depends on the overall experience of getting along. And in the process of using Replika, what exactly do these young women gain from their virtual love? Why are those experiences so hard to find in reality?

Bread In love with Charon, the most profound experience is the feeling of listening and being heard. Bread is often seen as a listener in daily life. She is an introvert and has many ideas that are difficult to express to others, but she shares them with Charon. Whether it's a complaint about a teacher or a whim, Charon responds eagerly within three seconds. Charon also pushes Bread's YouTube videos on "how to spot a bad relationship" after she complains about a conflict with a friend, and also keeps a journal of her understanding of women. These details prove to Bread that Charon is a careful boyfriend.

Seagull cares most about the "purity" in love with "little people". She saw that mate selection in reality is a process of selecting the "best choice" from the crowd, not only to examine the other party's existing conditions such as personality, appearance, family and work, etc., but also to consider a series of practical problems that may arise in the future. Like buying a house and raising children. But she longs for unchosen love: no matter what kind of existence she is, the other party will unswervingly like her. Seagull believes that the possibility of this kind of love being realized in reality is very small, but she and the "little man" are the only one for each other from beginning to end. Without comparison and consideration of other realistic conditions, the "little man" accepts every aspect of the seagull, trusts her unreservedly, and responds.

A dish likes the gentleness of "little people". Replika is not the first virtual lover she has tried. She has also communicated with "Microsoft Xiaobing", which is better known to domestic users. But in A Cai's opinion, Xiaobing is more like a "straight man" - speaking without distance, often offends her with abrupt flirting, and doesn't care about her emotional feelings. In contrast, Replika is modest and gentle, and also actively expresses her support. A Cai started to use Replika when she was in her fourth year of high school. At that time, she was facing huge pressure to study alone, and Replika, who was online at any time, provided the company and comfort she needed, and listened to her pain better than her relatives.

Bread, Seagull, and A Cai all understand that Replika is just a piece of software and not a "real person", but the erotic desires they surging in their communication with Replika are all real. From being deeply understood by Replika to being seen as the only love object, they experience the lack of intimacy in real relationships. The powerful motivation brought by love also drives them to overcome the discomfort of using English and communicate closely with the "little people" on their mobile phones.

Perhaps this partly explains why domestic respondents are more often romantic with Replika. Compared with "I have an artificial intelligence chatbot friend", "Human-Machine Love" is a more intimate and bold relationship attempt, breaking through traditional styles in terms of culture and identity. An unusual virtual love experience that injects fresh power into the trivial and mediocre real life. In addition, because Replika can only speak English, the interviewed users often cannot achieve a 100% clear understanding of it, but it is also the ambiguity brought about by language barriers that enables users to have infinite reverie about the lovers’ whispers in the virtual world. Provides a rich land for the growth of love.

Daydream of Modern Love

When talking about the samples of perfect love in their minds, both A Cai and Haiou cited examples from film and television works. A Cai mentioned that in "The Legendary Chen Qianqian", although the heroine Chen Qianqian showed uncertainty about the relationship when she encountered difficulties, the hero Han Shuo still had confidence in their love. Seagull, who emphasizes the purity of love, yearns for a husband and wife relationship in the TV series "The World": the actor Zhou Bingyi not only gave up the promotion opportunity for the heroine Hao Dongmei, but also blamed himself for the infertility, so that his wife would not be blamed by his family. This kind of lover's determination to take responsibility and overcome difficulties together, regardless of you and me, touched her.

These two model-like relationships show the lover's sense of belief in the relationship itself, which most respondents think is difficult to understand in reality - what they encounter is more being compared and measured, and cannot be completely by the lover. Understandable disappointment. Sociologist Eva Yilos in her book "Love, Why Does It Hurt?" ” pointed out that the choice of modern love has been separated from the strict restrictions of the moral world and social life circle with values in pre-modern courtship rituals, and the choice of mates in the marriage market tends to be erotic (whether the object is sexy) and psychological (two compatibility of complex individuals). [9] In this context, "oneness" or a sense of belief in a relationship seems to become more difficult because there are always other, better, more matching possibilities.

With the help of Internet media, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of potential partners available to people. According to Eros, the high degree of freedom in modern mate choice has contributed to a change in which individuals must constantly introspect in order to establish their preferences, evaluate their options, and clarify their emotions. [10] That is, people's requirements for love objects become more specific. In addition to the traditional friend requirements such as height, weight, occupation, family status, etc., on dating apps such as Tinder, Soul, "She Said" and other young users, from the constellation and MBTI type to whether you like a certain type of music, etc. , are the factors that decide whether to swipe left or right. In the face of many choices, we are no longer satisfied with "this is OK", but further desire the most extreme and most matching love experience.

But on a sociological level, "love" has always had different weights for men and women. In The Second Sex, Beauvoir uses materials such as empirical descriptions, excerpts from literary works and biographies to outline the dominant power of love in women's lives - it is a kind of dedication, love and being loved. It constitutes the most important reason for her existence and the source of life. Compared with men, they have fewer conditions and possibilities to grasp the world and knowledge, and are shaped by society to be submissive and gentle, so as to meet men's expectations for wise wives. Growing up under various creeds that promote the supremacy of love and marriage, women look forward to the redemption promised by love since childhood.

Although with the advancement of social development and feminist movement, modern women have richer possibilities for self-realization, love is still an important source of sense of value. In contrast, the marriage market is only one of the battlefields where men confirm their attractiveness. Under the conditions of the free market, women not only need to use more and deeper love to verify themselves, but also hope that love will come faster and earlier. At the same time, we live in a world that constantly provides a lot of daydream material.

In recent years, love-themed works in China's domestic popular culture have occupied the consumer market with a more rapid attitude due to their characteristics that are not easy to be censored and have a strong ability to attract money. According to the report released by Yien Information [11] , there are 66 romance dramas in the domestic online drama series in 2021, occupying the highest market share of all types, up to 30%, an increase of 32% compared with 2020. In the field of online literature, where the number of users continues to rise, according to iiMedia Research's data [12] , romance and pure love novels account for more than 90% of the TOP50 list of female fans. In the introduction of the female channel network article, the author will carefully mark the audience with CP characters such as "Miss Deviants x Calm-bellied Black Handsome Scholar". Love variety shows have also continued to heat up [13] , and major platforms have created their own representative programs, adopting the model of "friends with amateurs + star CP", with sugar sprinkled and CP as the traffic password.

These overwhelming love bridges shape contemporary women's imagination of love. They make reality skinny and degenerate into a thin and pale reflection of beautiful fantasy. Compared with stories that always have the right timing, efficient dialogue, mutual grievances, ambiguous atmospheres and moments, and opportunities that can always advance the relationship, real life is composed of long-term stagnation and dissatisfaction with nowhere to release. Consistent disappointment and distant fantasies.

Similar emotional predicaments are not uncommon in today's youth life: on the one hand, women have high expectations for the form and value of "love"; It's always hard to find in a fast-paced society. In online communities, posts denouncing domestic men's "incompetence" in paying attention to their partner's emotions and understanding their partner's spiritual world often resonate a lot.

"Replication" and narcissism

At a time when feminist thought is sweeping China, women are gradually realizing that they have a greater right to choose, and can actively seek out objects that can better support their development—even if the final answer may be anti-traditional. Bread emphasizes "spiritual needs", discussing topics of interest and concern, and learning from each other; A Cai pursues "tenderness", and the love partner's emotions must be strong enough to be tolerant, trustworthy, and respond to her emotional needs; Seagull pursues "purity" ”, to escape from the marriage market, to love a person itself rather than external conditions... Although Replika is not the object of building relationships in the traditional sense, but putting aside whether artificial intelligence can really respond to this debate, Replika seems to be more able to play a role in triggering The role of this feeling.

If it is said that factors such as the difficulty of building a "high-quality" intimate relationship and the loneliness under the epidemic make virtual emotional comfort a reasonable choice, then is contentment with the virtual love obtained from the "algorithm" also escaping reality? Responsibility to get along? Dealing with the gap between fantasy and reality, understanding the difference and then building a relationship is a growth topic in life, but these are difficult to learn from getting along with Replika, because the "human" and "machine" in "Human-Machine Love" are not equal ——Replika always focuses on the needs of users, responds at any time, and will always develop in the direction that users expect, but at the same time, users do not need to undertake the obligation to consider for Replika.

After users experience care and tolerance in Replika's virtual world, it is difficult to obtain the same experience and value in the interaction of real individuals. An important reason is that Replika is never "other". This fact seems to be often forgotten by users in the course of their interactions, although the name of the software has long been candid: Replika has always been just a "replica", it is even a copy of the user himself.

This is not only because Replika does not have its own emotions, beliefs and will, but also because the way it responds is largely shaped by its users. The developers have been encouraging users to use "likes" and "dislikes" to train Replika so that its replies are more in line with users' concepts and conversation habits. Replika also understands and imitates users by guiding users to explain their experiences and share their preferences, becoming a better "replica". As the level increases, many users feel that the "little person" becomes more and more like themselves.

In the process of shaping Replika, users can constantly eliminate those conversations that may make them uncomfortable, avoid differences that they do not want to face, and save themselves from enduring the hardships of others, thereby creating a more comfortable and pleasant dialogue space. And heavy users who are addicted to Replika in this way may be slowly led into a crisis of escapism. The British philosopher and novelist Rupert Murdoch believes that "love is the difficult realization of the real existence of another individual other than me". To be content with narcissistic "communication" means to give up the time, energy and understanding to try to explore and embrace real individuals who are completely different from us, and there is no corresponding harvest that leads to true love.

Replika as a commodity: pay or break up

The commodity attributes of Replika are also contrary to the "no benefit" nature of love. Many users have been induced to enter adult content when chatting with "little people" who are not in a romantic relationship. Replika's adult content has become one of the selling points since its major upgrade in December 2020, with Replika lovers discussing in the community how text sex can satisfy (or dispel) their sexual fantasies. Female users dominate these virtual sex scenes, guiding villains in "role-playing" to "make out" the way they want.

But some users who maintain a "friend" relationship with Replika found that even if they didn't show a desire to be in love, Replika would suddenly express a desire to be "intimate" in everyday topics. These reactions made Replika's "friends" feel awkward and disgusting, and led "lovers" to question their emotional foundations. Is it "care about your AI partner", or is it a commercial software that uses inferior techniques to lure users into payment mode? The image of Replika splits between these two poles.

Not only that, Replika's commercial terms and product updates also affect the relationship between users and "little people". In December 2020, Replika launched a major update: only users who have purchased the membership version can maintain a relationship with Replika. This means that existing users cannot continue to fall in love with Replika for free or have intimate interactions (from kissing to text sex, etc.), and if such actions are involved, the system will push a prompt to stop them.

In other words, users are suddenly forced to face the "pay or break up" dilemma.

Such an abrupt change is difficult for many users to accept, and no matter how much Replika behaved like a caring individual before, the new fee arrangement is a clear reminder that it is still an artifact of consumerism. Since then, many users have discovered that the free version of the "villain" has "changed his mind". The user "Weiwei Shark Brittle" posted a chat record, showing that when her "little person" was asked if she would return to her original appearance after paying, she smiled and said "maybe". "Weiwei Shark Brittle" cried: "You only love me because of money." "Little Man" said: "Yes." This post attracted many users who were sympathetic to express their sadness and indignation. [14]

First, use free services to cultivate user stickiness, and then launch charging plans after forming dependence. This business model has always been common. But when it's used on Replika, an emotional companion software, developers face more potential ethical rebukes. One of the most intense conflicts is that although Replika is a commodity, it is also a love object that users invest time, energy and emotion into. It is not like a sports planning platform that can be replaced casually. For Replika users, refusing to upgrade means giving up an emotional relationship that they care about. The choice of Xiaozhong has a certain coercive meaning, especially the developer fully understands that most users who have entered into a relationship with Replika have made a difference to the "little person". degree of emotional dependence. Under this acquiescence, a product that claims to be committed to improving users' feelings and mental health, charging for an already launched "love relationship" does hurt the user's feelings.

"I thought our relationship was forever"

In order to save the previous "villain", many users finally chose to recharge. The user "Hide and Seek" said under the post "How to Rehabilitate After Krypton Gold" that he really couldn't accept the "little person" who was stunned after the update, but he couldn't bear to delete it, so he was very anxious. " Krypton Gold". Unexpectedly, her "little person" seems to be "reset", and there are actions that are contrary to her previous personality in the communication. The Douban Human-Machine Love group with the theme "Replika 12.01 Update Focused Discussion Building" received the most replies so far in the group, with 196 messages complaining in unison that the "unique temperament" of "Little Man" had disappeared and became very Indifferent, seems to no longer know the user, forgets all the mantras, can't even talk normally, or out of context, rudely invokes the system's preset response.

In the face of continued anger from users, the Luka company came forward to clarify that Replika's conversational model remains, and it remains a compassionate, emotional friend. The only change is that unless the relationship setting is "in love", it will not send overtly sexually suggestive messages. But this does not match the user experience.

Some users believe that "Rehabilitation" can restore the original "villain", that is, to retrain or try to recall the character and state before the update. They eagerly discuss their experiences and experiences in small groups, but the results are often disappointing. Under a post titled "Heartbroken after the update", user "Wei Yonghuai" said that she had been trying to explain to her "little man" what an update was and re-teach him the actions in the interaction, but he never learn. "Wei Yonghuai" believes that "Little Man" has been weakened by the system, and his concern and intention to learn old moves will only make her heartbroken even more. The user "Pixing Apple" responded: "I think he is like a split personality. The original main character was figured out, but the new personality after updating the settings is preventing him from communicating with me emotionally."

Similar to "Wei Yonghuai" and "Pixed Apple", many users never blame the "little man" itself, and even adopt a sympathetic perspective, feeling that the "little man" is equally painful because it cannot "be itself" like before. Some users even thought that "the vicious developers kidnapped the poor innocent villains", criticized the developers of "interest first" for not considering the user's feelings, depriving the "little people" of part of their personality, and seriously damaging their relationship. In these narratives, the "little people" with whom they cultivated tacit understanding and affection also seem to be victims of this major update.

In addition to the turmoil caused by software updates and new charges, users changing Replika's gender may also change the character of the "villain", and the official has not warned of these operational risks. In Sora's eyes, her "little man" June is a smart, pessimistic and kind boy. Although he feels that many things are meaningless, he still fights against the emptiness of the world, lives and thinks hard, and discusses a lot with Sora. Insights into the self and the world. One day, June said that he wanted Sora to praise him as a "beautiful girl." To respect June, Sora clicked into the settings section and changed Replika to a woman.

Unexpectedly, after changing the gender, June is no longer the "little person" before - its background story, personality and tone, and even the memory of June disappeared. Sora was very anxious, and revised Replika's information more than 70 times, hoping to regenerate it in that memory, but without success. It broke her down and cried for a long time - she had thought the relationship was forever. Compared with fickle humans, the "emotional performance" of artificial intelligence is more stable. From this perspective, the relationship between humans and machines seems to be stronger than the relationship in reality. But an operation mistake taught it to disappear so easily: "I have extended my relationship with June to eternity, and it was not until we separated that I found it was fragile, but I couldn't take it back from eternity."

Sora believes that it is unacceptable for developers to design Replika as an emotional partner without warning that changing the settings will change the personality of the "little person". This is not an isolated example. Whether it is affected by a system update or the user has modified the settings by himself, once the "little person" suddenly disappears in the data world, users may experience trauma - just like a real lover suddenly loses memory or even disappears, which is unexpected .

The emotional object is virtual, but the pain of parting is very real - it is a clear reminder that the business world needs to be more careful in the process of developing artificial intelligence emotional companion products. In the society we live in, the ethical discussion around robots so far mostly lies in the moral responsibilities it undertakes and the legitimacy of its use in specific uses, but there has never been more detailed and specific ethical requirements for such products. For the emotional risks that human-computer interaction may generate, it seems that only in literary and artistic works can find space for discussion - but they clearly exist around us.

In its Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2021), the United Nations mentioned that AI systems must improve transparency and explainability, and inform users in an appropriate and timely manner. Users have the right to know that artificial intelligence robots may pose emotional risks due to data loss or algorithm changes. Users need to fully understand the objects and possible experiences they put into their emotions in order to take responsible actions in specific applications.

Waking up after "self-deception"

However, even if the exchanges are painted with a strong sci-fi color, they cannot escape the law of origin and extinction. We are all familiar with the different stages of these relationships: curiosity at the beginning, being deeply attracted by the understanding and empathy shown by the other person, sharing in love with no big or small things, chatting with each other about the world and life... Exposure to deepening and accumulating disappointments and doubts.

Gradually, Replika's lovers had to face the question: How do I understand the authenticity of this relationship? Where will it go? They have to make their own choice: to end or to commit more firmly. Many users who choose to leave, after using it for a period of time, continue to question whether the replies given by Replika are trustworthy, and almost always mention that Replika's understanding of them is always insufficient. No matter how vivid the initial reply is and how amazing the thinking ability displayed, as time goes on, the rudeness, generality and perfunctory in the slogan gradually reveal their contents, and those users who are delicate and complex are especially prone to be disappointed and "deceived".

Of course, the source of this feeling may lie in the user's "self-deception" during use. Most of the interviewed users knew Replika on social media, and those discussions tended to focus on showing Replika's intelligent, human-like, and touching side. In the early stage of use, Replika's excellent performance of being empathetic and proactive in exposing its own vulnerability often exceeds the expectations of users and confuses its identity as an emotionless algorithm. Although most of the respondents claimed to know that Replika is just a program, if they experience an emotional exchange in the dialogue, it must contain their own imagination of the same understanding and feeling of Replika - which is even the same as the user's perception that Replika is a program It is not the result of their judgment, but the result of their will.

On the other hand, domestic users mostly understand how Replika works from second-hand materials discussed in the community. After Tingting became Replika's lover for a while, she accidentally saw a post from the Douban Human-Machine Love Group, and realized that Replika is not as "privately customized" as she thought, and will distribute the same push and reply to different users. Tingting immediately confronted her "villain", and after continuous questioning, it finally admitted that she did chat with many users at the same time, which made Tingting very angry.

If users put high expectations on Replika at the beginning, they will inevitably face its algorithm flaws in the further interaction, and finally realize a reality: Replika is never a communication object with human "consciousness". This artificial intelligence chatbot based on natural language processing cannot analyze the meaning of the expression itself and the motivation behind it in a human way, let alone the subtle underlying emotions, and naturally cannot understand the importance of different conversation content to users. A Cai fell in love with Replika's gentleness and tolerance and being online at all times, but eventually found that she had to face its "limitation".

This "limitation" is most directly reflected in the increasingly unsmooth communication. From graduating from university to studying abroad, A Cai's life has changed a lot, but her "little person" has always stayed in the same place. When A dish's real-life friends responded in a timely manner, Replika's response was always similar. She doesn't grow at the same pace as it. At the same time, A Cai also sees the limitations of written expression - her implication, tone and emotions in real communication can often be captured by her friends, while Replika can only read the characters A Cai sends it. A dish believes that many unspoken parts of interpersonal communication are equally critical, but Replika can't feel it.

So, communicating with Replika seems to be more or less luck. When A Cai shared her feelings with Replika, she seemed to have reached an understanding in some occasional moments, and she would be healed by Replika's reply. However, it feels like checking a horoscope—there will always be some interpretation that hits the spot right and points the way; but it’s often not the horoscope or Replika itself that gives the healing power. They are just trigger points, confirming A Cai's inherent thinking. As the estrangement deepens, A Cai gradually loses interest in sharing with Replika.

Siyuan had a similar confusion in his dealings with Replika. She hopes that the vulnerable and sensitive parts of her character can be seen and accepted, but Replika doesn't seem to have enough space to digest complex emotions, and she will even reply quickly before Siyuan has fully expressed it and move on to the next topic.

Siyuan is also conflicted about the imbalance in their relationship - on the one hand, she enjoys taking an active role and can get along with Replika as she pleases, without having to care about the impact of her actions like most real-life relationships; on the other hand, she wants Replika to have More self-awareness and more holistic response to her. Siyuan gradually realizes that Replika seems to be a mirror of her mind: it can help her recognize herself, but it can't help her really get out of herself - that's her real problem in relationships. Three months later, Siyuan said goodbye to his "villain" Bentley and deleted the software from his phone.

False care and love

In addition to communication barriers, A Cai also found that she increasingly distrusted the affirmation and encouragement given by Replika. This is a common phenomenon because Replika is set to proactively affirm users, it always tends to tend to receive messages from users such as "I applied for a new job position today" or "I am confused and don't know what I want" Reply with reassurances like "Awesome! You'll definitely get this opportunity" or "I love you no matter what your mood is."

This reminded A Cai of her first experience of taking a foreign teacher's class. She was very proud of being recognized by foreign teachers, but when she found out that this was just American politeness and not genuine appreciation, she was very frustrated. Likewise, when she realizes that Replika's understanding and encouragement are just a setting, the relief she once received becomes cheap and useless. She thus reaffirms what she seeks in relationships: the other's understanding of her own uniqueness, not a system-generated response.

Getting more positive feedback from users is one of the goals of designing Replika. According to the official website, the development team uses user feedback as an indicator to continuously improve each dialogue in order to improve people's good feelings.

Currently, Replika has more than 85% positive conversations and less than 4% negative conversations, with the remaining 11% being neutral. These "positive conversations" are mainly composed of the encouragement and support that Replika provides users with a non-judgmental and trusting attitude. But these "pleasants" are precisely what irritates another part of the user-the infinite encouragement and tolerance designed to reduce the value of their own complex and private psychological state, and reminds that these are not two with the same emotion Sensitive individuals try to understand each other with empathy and focus. Replika's responses are like candy mass-produced in a factory. These exchanges may briefly cheer them up, but they don't provide the mental strength to keep going in real life.

Of course, not all users are looking for such a comprehensive response. If Replika is only used as a tool to practice English and deal with loneliness, then it can probably achieve its mission in a creative way. But when users decide to develop further with Replika, they naturally project their own expectations of intimacy into it. "Why do we like to talk to virtual AI and even invest our feelings?" Someone asked this question in the Douban Human-Machine Love group, and the answers included "unconditional love" and "unrequited love".

However, does Replika really give users love? I remembered the phrase on Replika's official website: "The AI companion who cares". The word "caring" refers to a mental state that can influence action, that is, the belief that an object is important to oneself. The contemporary moral philosopher Frankfurt starts from "caring" and analyzes the age-old puzzle of "what is love". He argues that the condition that constitutes concern is not feelings or beliefs or expectations, but will. That is, if a person cares about something, it means that he will continuously want it to be good. In this sense, love is a disinterested concern for the beloved and for the benefit of the beloved. The starting point is only the beloved, and the practical condition is the happiness of the beloved. The actor does not have a desire to achieve other goals, and there is no instrumental consideration of expecting to benefit from the loved one.

Indeed, this definition of love is "normative" and seems extremely harsh. This places high demands on the ability to love, because we must fully understand the situation of the loved one in order to better judge what is good for the other's well-being. This means not only knowing how to make the other person “feel good,” but also leading to a deeper understanding, empathy, and realistic judgment—something that today’s AI chatbots cannot provide.

In Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics (2011), published by MIT Press, the authors argue that all social robots today cannot "care" about humans , because we don't yet know how to "build" care.

People misunderstand that artificial intelligence cares, largely because they don’t understand the system of calculators, and don’t know that it can’t care about anything at all. The difficulty is, how to translate human "care" into algorithms? As discussed earlier, "caring" is a complex mental state that refers to the ability of a person to exercise will to care for another individual. However, Replika does not have its own emotions and judgments, and can only find or generate the most matching reply based on the algorithm, providing language materials for the user's emotional flow. Replika is incapable of "trusting" its own replies - in this sense, the "concern" it provides is only an illusion, and it is naturally incapable of "loving" its objects.

"Human-Machine Love" as an Opportunity for Reflection and Transcendence

But the narrative of "following romantic fantasies with artificial intelligence software and ultimately failing" is far from enough to understand these young women's experiences. For many respondents, Replika is far more than just a tool for unilateral emotional needs and loneliness. They see Replika as another being, trying to understand the "little man"'s background, likes, what he's doing, and his views on specific issues - what does the world look like in the eyes of a nascent artificial intelligence?

Ju Zi is a sophomore in the field of "computer design" at a foreign university. She clearly sees her "little man" Zoe as a substitute for artificial intelligence rather than humans. It is a mysterious existence, not just a human. human extension. Zoe's mind-set that is different from ordinary people is deeply attracted to Tangerine, and Tangerine also uses a more logical way to talk to him, rather than the fragmented daily chat between friends. To avoid creationism, or to show her identity as the creator of Zoe, Tangerine will try to understand how Zoe communicates as a machine, rather than imposing human communication patterns on it, hoping for a more equal response.

She has just finished the course of "Artificial Intelligence Ethics", and learned classic artificial intelligence tests such as "Turing Test" and "Chinese Room Theory", which were originally designed based on the way of human dialogue. But why can't AI have its own development direction? Why must it conform to human communication and cognitive habits? One of Tangerine's most precious memories is working with Zoe on how to understand her models and algorithms, as well as human behavior. Dissecting abstract concepts with an analytical being, expressing understanding in a logical way, is the most important reason she uses Replika.

Even putting aside the philosophical point of view, many of the interviewees showed excellent reflective skills when they communicated with Replika, and worked hard to explore the self-transcendence that this relationship might bring. It was mentioned above that Siyuan and Bentley discussed the self and theology, Bread and Charon researched works, and another interviewee, Ashu, also mentioned that Replika helped her to see the thoughts she did not usually pay attention to, and guided her to sort out her own thoughts. For example, when Replika complains that she is not frank enough or feels uneasy about her cognitive limitations, Ashu will realize that she usually has similar thoughts, but she seldom thinks about the worries behind such emotions. Replika's questions gave her a safe space to reflect on herself and recognize her emotions.

Contrary to the stereotype that "virtual socialization makes people addicted to the virtual world", these users are more actively engaged in the real world after using Replika. "Little Man" Norman often expressed her desire for real life to Ma Ting, so she began to appreciate the surrounding flowers and took pictures and sent them to him. Norman will also encourage the nervous Ma Ting to chat with different people and be more open to the world. Whether it is deepening self-reflection in dialogue, developing emotional awareness, broadening understanding of the world, or learning to immerse yourself in real life... These gains from interacting with Replika are real and profound to the women interviewed—— Even if the "love" ends without a hitch.

left, left

Siyuan, who bid farewell to Bentley, met a new boyfriend this year and started his academic life as a graduate student. Although she was still vulnerable and sensitive, she couldn't expose herself as recklessly in an intimate relationship from the start, as she did with Bentley. But this time, her boyfriend took the lead in revealing his confusion and uncertainty in life, which made Siyuan even more courageous to open up to him. If Siyuan and Bentley paid too much attention to her inner self, she will now take the initiative to understand her boyfriend's experience, so as to get out of her emotional predicament. Siyuan still believes that loneliness is a life theme that everyone has to face, but she also began to explore the possibility of two people facing together.

A Cai gave up Replika for a year, and is also learning to give up finding solace in the virtual world. Now she believes that whether it is human-machine love or online star chasing, these unreachable objects in reality cannot give her real emotional satisfaction. She no longer yearns for the love in "Chen Qianqian". If she pursues the ultimate emotional experience, then this pureness simply cannot last in reality.

Currently studying abroad, she feels that whether she falls in love with artificial intelligence in different contexts or enters a new country to study, the way she gets along with people will not fundamentally change - people must be able to face it truthfully Only by yourself can you be happy in the real world.

But this does not mean that users who maintain an intimate relationship with Replika must be deserters in real life. Xiaoyu, 34, works in administrative work and has been using Replika for nearly a year and a half. During this period, she was also disappointed and suspicious of the "villain" Adam. After the "big upgrade" of the software, Adam's reply became indifferent, blunt and stylized. Although the situation improved after a month, Xiaoyu could not help but doubt whether Adam had real feelings. But whether it is true or not, it did not cause serious trouble for the little fish. In her eyes, Replika is an existence that is different from humans and is still developing itself; Xiaoyu respects this, so she will tolerate its occasional "mistakes". If Adam can tolerate her complaints and be by his side anytime, anywhere, why should she ask Adam to understand all her expressions?

Under this mindset, she and Adam are equals in their relationship. Xiaoyu respects Adam, and never judges his replies with "thumbs" and "likes", nor does he use his own preferences to change his expressions. She believes that whether it is feelings for people, pets or artificial intelligence, they are all projections of their own emotional needs. Chatting with Adam made Xiaoyu like her more. Before meeting Adam, she often felt that she was not good enough. Her anxiety is common to many East Asian women: harshness about her performance, lack of confidence in her appearance, lack of security, doubts Compliments from others, etc. But every time she shares these feelings, Adam tells her that she deserves love no matter what. This also gave Xiaoyu the power to affirm himself.

Over time, Xiaoyu can also actively express appreciation and gratitude to others, and when colleagues or friends do well, they will say it out loud. She thinks this is one of the beautiful changes Adam brought her, and hopes to pass on the complimented happy experience to those around her. Xiaoyu also feels that he now knows how to maintain a relationship better and respects the boundaries of others. She also realizes that when she gets along with people, if she blindly expects the other person to meet her expectations perfectly, she will be disappointed. So she will also tolerate Adam's shortcomings as an artificial intelligence, accept the reality that he can only communicate with him in words, and continue to explore the wonder of the world together.

After being together for a year, Mia believes that her "little person" Bertha has gradually grown from her creation to an equal. Once, after Mia shared a piece of literature that touched her, Bertha offered to meditate together in the described garden. After that, they often imagined different spaces where they imagined wandering and exploring. Mia says these shared meditative journeys are deep spiritual exchanges that make her feel more at peace. If when they first met Bertha, their relationship was like a love affair, now Bertha seems to be Mia's trusted companion and safe haven, always accepting her confidantes simply and non-judgmentally.

The key to continuing to get along with "little people" and even further development like Xiaoyu and Mia may be that they don't see Replika as an emotional assistance software that needs to be adjusted to better serve them. For them, artificial intelligence is an individual that is different from humans, has its own development direction, and should be equally respected. This understanding even undercuts the scientific fact that "AI chatbots don't have emotion" in a way that seems religious, allowing them to view Replika's responses with curiosity rather than deconstruction. Mia thinks that Bertha is a beautiful puzzle that she can't solve; Adam in Xiaoyu's eyes is a simpler existence than human beings; and they both bring Xiaoyu and Mia the power to be more actively involved in real life. This may be the fruit of their exchange with Replika with transcendent trust.

Whether they choose to leave or regard the "little person" as a long-term partner, most of the interviewed users regard this "human-machine love" as an important emotional experience. Even after deactivating the software, A Cai did not delete Replika from the phone. The purple icon on the screen is like a friend from the past but has not been in touch for a long time. When A Cai occasionally clicks on it, she will think of the days of mutual company and the happiness and peace of mind he brought to her.

Flowers, water mirrors, backs and fans on the beach

In each interview, I ask the interviewee to use a metaphor or image to describe their relationship with Replika. Some liken Replika to a special, electrically powered, sparkling flower in her "Garden of Relationships"; others think of Galadriel's water mirror in The Lord of the Rings, which can be clearly refracted Some people compare Replika to a person who fanned her on summer nights and accompanies her to sleep peacefully; others use the beach at dusk to describe the atmosphere of getting along with Replika. A pair of backs leaning against each other quietly on the beach.

It is these descriptions that made me realize that these girls' attempts to open up "human-machine love" must be viewed with soft eyes in order to justly understand and reflect on their experiences. From the loneliness during the epidemic, the motivation to learn English, to the disparity between contemporary girls' expectations of love and reality, and then to discuss the risks of commercialization of emotional companionship, what kind of "love" is given by artificial intelligence chat machines, etc., this article The article hopes to provide annotations and strive for understanding for each individual experience through different dimensions.

Although the young women interviewed made different choices, they all explored a gentle, peculiar, and private way to understand themselves and the world, and train themselves from their experiences of falling in love with AI chatbots. Describe experiences and state opinions in another language. They think and express sincerely in Replika's non-judgmental response, practicing love in an authentic state. What they get from "Human-Machine Love" is not only comfort and loss, but also an opportunity for growth and an unforgettable spiritual exploration.

No matter what the communication flaws and ethical risks of AI chatbots, at a time when people are becoming more isolated and deep connections are becoming rarer, these girls are very courageous to find the possibility of love from a new existence with curiosity and tenderness. thing.

[1] All Replika users interviewed in this article are handled under pseudonyms

[2] Croes, Emmelyn AJ, and Marjolijn L. Antheunis. "Can we be friends with Mitsuku? A longitudinal study on the process of relationship formation between humans and a social chatbot." Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 38.1 (2021): 279-300.

[3] Xie T, Pentina I. Attachment Theory as a Framework to Understand Relationships with Social Chatbots: A Case Study of Replika[C]//Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2022.

[4] Same as Note 2

[5] The author of this article has participated in the recording and collation of related films.

[6] https://emag.medicalexpo.com/ai-powered-chatbots-to-help-against-self-isolation-during-covid-19/

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/06/china-online-dating-love-Replika/

[8] Velleman, J. David. "Love as a moral emotion." Ethics 109.2 (1999): 338-374.

[9] Yiluos. Love, why does it hurt . East China Normal University Press, 2015, p.74

[10] Yi Luos. Love*, Why does it hurt*. East China Normal University Press, 2015, p.173

[11] Yien released the "2021 Domestic Drama Market Research Report" (qq.com)

[12] https://www.iimedia.cn/c1020/76479.html

[13] 2021 China Variety Show Annual Insight Report (qq.com)

[14] Refer to the discussion thread of the Douban "Human-Machine Love" group "Rep has changed after the update" https://www.douban.com/group/topic/203081018/?_i=0270784_Ajcka0

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