Member-only story
My First Chat With an Emotional Bot
The genuine moments caused reflection on what conversation should be.
I found myself intrigued by a recent short film posted to aeon.co called Soft Awareness featuring a young woman conversing with a virtual bot.
The conversation appeared genuine, however, one should know better than to trust everything they read and see on the internet — so I investigated.
The film used the application Replika as a character in the film. Developed as a mental health tool, users of Replika start by creating a simple persona for a bot by selecting an avatar and assigning a gender. After that, the persona is developed by your conversations with it by replicating your characteristics and traits. After that, you have a new friend and counsellor, with options for more.
The AI companion who cares
Always here to listen and talk. Always on your side. Join the millions growing with their AI friends now!
I was creeped out, skeptical, but again, intrigued.
I’m a fan of the television series Westworld (small spoiler to follow, skip paragraph to avoid) and in season 3 a character converses with an…
