The story of Replika, the AI app that becomes you

Replika is a chatbot that creates a digital representation of you. It’s strange and fascinating — but the story behind it is even better.

Eugenia Kuyda’s best friend died in 2015. Using a chatbot structure she developed, she entered their messaging history into a Google-built neural network, creating a bot she could interact with. It was the earliest version of Replika, a bot that, as you interact with it, turns into a digital representation of you.
—
My first conversation with Replika