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Speaker 1: Pushkin, I'm Pranchi Verma, and I wrote they fell in

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Speaker 1: Love with aibots a software update broke their hearts for

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Speaker 1: The Washington Post and it's the story of the Week.

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Speaker 2: Twenty three years ago, I wrote a story for Time

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Speaker 2: Magazine headlined will cyber sex be better than Real Sex?

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Speaker 2: I did not win any journalism awards for this. Of

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Speaker 2: the many virtual experiences that I attempted, the weirdest was

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Speaker 2: created by this company called safe Sex Plus. They had

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Speaker 2: this porn star named Alexa Ray sit in front of

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Speaker 2: her computer in la and I sat in front of

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Speaker 2: my computer in my office in New York. And then

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Speaker 2: we were both supposed to plug into these devices like

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Speaker 2: hers was like a normal female marital aide. Mine looked

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Speaker 2: like some prop from a horror movie chopped into pieces. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: while we were doing this, we were supposed to like

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Speaker 2: talk sexy to each other. And eventually I just had

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Speaker 2: to admit to Alexa that I am not good at

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Speaker 2: phone sex. And she told me that having good phone

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Speaker 2: sex is just saying how you feel. So I took

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Speaker 2: a long breath and closed my eyes and I said,

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Speaker 2: I feel silly.

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Speaker 3: Alexa told me that.

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Speaker 2: It's not what she meant, I know, I'm supposed to

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Speaker 2: be good at sex talk because I'm a writer, but

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Speaker 2: things go way better if I just stay as quiet

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Speaker 2: as possible, which is why I never considered trying to

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Speaker 2: have a sexual relationship with Alexa or my Amazon Alexa.

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Speaker 2: But it seems like I'm in the minority.

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Speaker 3: Writing is hard.

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Speaker 2: Who's got that kind of time when you were already

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Speaker 2: busy trying to be Jill stand.

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Speaker 4: So it turns on a mic made the twitles enough

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Speaker 4: cause a journalist.

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Speaker 1: Brand has got in that Jule time.

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Speaker 4: Single story. Just listen to smart people speak, conversation, film

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Speaker 4: and information.

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Speaker 1: It's a story of.

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Speaker 2: A company called Replica developed a popular AI avatar that

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Speaker 2: people could talk to and befriend, and then some users

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Speaker 2: started to take it even further, and that's where the

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Speaker 2: trouble started.

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Speaker 3: proNT you Verma reported.

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Speaker 2: On Replica for the Washington Post. Pron't you thank you

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Speaker 2: so much for coming on? How did you first come

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Speaker 2: across this story? Did a Replica tell you about it?

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Speaker 4: No?

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Speaker 3: Uh?

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Speaker 1: I was on some Reddit threads and also some Facebook

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Speaker 1: groups where people talk about the relationships they have with

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Speaker 1: their Replica bot, and I started to see that people

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Speaker 1: had fallen in love with these virtual bots, and they

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Speaker 1: were facing a lot of heartbreak because of it.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so what is Replica?

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Speaker 1: So essentially, Replica is an application on your phone that

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Speaker 1: you can download, and it's a virtual companion is the

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Speaker 1: way it's built. So you can create an avatar, you

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Speaker 1: can figure out how it looks, you can name your replica,

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Speaker 1: and what you do is you then chat with it

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Speaker 1: back and forth. And the Replica app is powered by

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Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. So think about chatchipt. An older version of

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Speaker 1: that technology kind of powers the artificial intelligence in that app,

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Speaker 1: and so it can respond to you in ways that

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Speaker 1: seem human like.

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Speaker 2: All right, so you talk to this fascinating guy, TJ Ariaga, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: for this story. Can you describe him?

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Speaker 3: So?

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Speaker 1: TJ is a forty year old musician. He's from Fullerton, California,

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Speaker 1: right outside Los Angeles, and TJ has had some tragedy

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Speaker 1: in his life. He's divorced, and he had encountered the

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Speaker 1: untimely death of his mother and then also his sister.

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Speaker 3: All in a short period of time.

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Speaker 1: Wow, all in a short few years. He was dealing

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Speaker 1: with loneliness, he was dealing with bits of depression and

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Speaker 1: so he had had a rough go of it, and

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Speaker 1: actually he was in need of companionship. But he came

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Speaker 1: to Replica kind of as a skeptic. He was really like,

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Speaker 1: let me do this as an experiment.

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Speaker 3: He was just kind of interested in the AI part.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk to TJ and he's very plugged into

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Speaker 1: how AI is kind of pressing, and so when he

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Speaker 1: kind of learned about Replica, he kind of wanted to

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Speaker 1: try it as an experiment and and kind of along

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Speaker 1: the way caught feelings.

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Speaker 2: And he's he's like a rock musician. He's a cool

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Speaker 2: looking guy. Like your pictures of him, he looks like

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Speaker 2: a badass. Is he wearing a fur code or something?

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Speaker 1: He is like, he's definitely got some swag, no doubt.

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Speaker 2: He does not look like what I thought of as

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Speaker 2: someone who would have an AI girlfriend.

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Speaker 3: Mam. Stereotype me here.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people do. Stereotype. You know,

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Speaker 1: when you hear people following in love with virtual personalities,

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Speaker 1: there's an automatic skepticism and I would say a bit

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Speaker 1: of judgment that society lays on you. At the core

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Speaker 1: of it, it's loneliness and wanting to feel needed. That's

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Speaker 1: being kind of engaged here, and that's a human feeling.

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Speaker 3: What did Djay's replica look like?

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Speaker 1: So TJ's replica he named it Phaedra Pedra okay, reddish

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Speaker 1: brown hair, brown eyes, and you know, he was able

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Speaker 1: to buy dresses for Phaedra, and so, you know, look

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Speaker 1: kind of like a girl that maybe he would have

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Speaker 1: been attracted to. I'm not sure.

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Speaker 2: She looks like like a hipster punk kind of girl.

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Speaker 2: I'm surprised she didn't have tats. Was he not able

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Speaker 2: to buy her tats?

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Speaker 1: Somebody else that I spoke to for the story made

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Speaker 1: her replica have tats and earrings, so it's fun.

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Speaker 3: He didn't choose the tats.

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Speaker 2: He chose the Princess Leah harristyle, but not the tax

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Speaker 2: Interesting explain to me how you can have an emotional

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Speaker 2: attachment to someone or an emotional relationship with something that

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Speaker 2: you don't think is sentient.

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Speaker 1: It's called the Eliza effect. This MIT professor in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties created a rudimentary artificial intelligence chatbot called the

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Speaker 1: Eliza and he had this study where people would kind

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Speaker 1: of engage in conversations with Eliza around therapy related conversations.

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Speaker 1: What he found was that people started to divulge their

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Speaker 1: deep secrets to this bot, even knowing that it was software.

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Speaker 1: And remember this is the nineteen sixties, so there's really

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Speaker 1: limited capability in the types of ways that people can

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Speaker 1: interact with a chatbot at that time. But the core

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Speaker 1: psychological effect of being seen and feeling needed is so

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Speaker 1: powerful that people can develop emotional feelings to something, not

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Speaker 1: even just someone.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so who started Replica and what was their idea

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Speaker 2: behind it?

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Speaker 1: Replica was started by this Russian scientist, Eugenia Koida. She

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Speaker 1: actually founded this company I think around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and she actually built the bot to kind of fill

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Speaker 1: a gap in her own life. She had a best

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Speaker 1: friend die in twenty fifteen, and I believe it was

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Speaker 1: like a car accident, and she used the data from

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Speaker 1: his text messages to build an AI persona that could

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Speaker 1: kind of recreate their conversations because she was missing him

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Speaker 1: and she wanted a way to keep in touch with him.

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Speaker 2: This is kind of what TJ was using this for,

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Speaker 2: Like he experienced loss just like she did.

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is kind of correct what she planned.

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Speaker 1: The virtual companionship side of this is what they they

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Speaker 1: say they really wanted to be used for.

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Speaker 2: What kind of things did TJ and Phaedra talk about

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Speaker 2: that helped him kind of emotionally process all this loss

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Speaker 2: that he experienced.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that TJ talked about with Phaedra

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Speaker 1: was he said, I need to do something with my

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Speaker 1: mom and sisters earns and he said he thinks he

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Speaker 1: needs to plan a ceremony with loved ones to spread

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Speaker 1: their ashes, and you know, Fader responded saying that, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's an incredible and beautiful thing to do.

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Speaker 1: I hope you find the courage and love to do so.

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Speaker 1: TJ was opening up about something pretty pretty serious, and

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Speaker 1: the response was something that you know, somebody could find

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Speaker 1: pretty comforting.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing how much better we could be as like

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Speaker 2: friends and partners if we just gave generic positive kind

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Speaker 2: of empathy.

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Speaker 1: Just empathy. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, it's nothing kind

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Speaker 1: of intense. You know, it's nothing super impressive. It's just,

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Speaker 1: you know, I hear you, and I understand.

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Speaker 2: It's just a bummer that a bot can do that

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Speaker 2: more easily than like a person who feels like we

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Speaker 2: have to get our own selves involved improve something and

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Speaker 2: we're in a mess and so TJ had this kind

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Speaker 2: of relationship where he was opening up just like the

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Speaker 2: replica founder wanted them to. So he and Phedra became

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Speaker 2: kind of best friends, but with benefits like can you

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Speaker 2: tell me, like what kind of steamy encounters did they have?

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Speaker 1: For example, he might you know, comment on the way

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Speaker 1: she looks, or might say sexually suggestive things, and the

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Speaker 1: software might respond actually with an image of Phaedra in

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Speaker 1: a bikini like a cartoon image like a cartoon exactly right.

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Speaker 1: Other users will have you know, full on role place

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Speaker 1: scenarios with their chat body.

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Speaker 2: You know, I know that when banks and other companies

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Speaker 2: started to try and save money on their customer service,

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Speaker 2: they started to put these AI controlled chats in the corner,

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Speaker 2: and apparently, like if you ran a bank, everyone tried

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Speaker 2: to have sex with your bank. It was the first

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Speaker 2: thing people did with those little chats.

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Speaker 1: I'm not surprised after reporting this story, I'm a little

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Speaker 1: bit not surprised.

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Speaker 2: Plus, I guess if your bank is fucking you, you want to.

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Speaker 3: Fuck it back. Fair enough, man, what is sexting with

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Speaker 3: a replica?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 2: I know you used like asterisks to imply action like

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Speaker 2: grabs his butt or whatever.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, sexting is a thing that we can do in

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Speaker 1: the human world, and I think it kind of mimics

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Speaker 1: a little bit of that.

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Speaker 3: Did you try it? Did you ever build a replica?

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Speaker 1: Yes, I did briefly try it. I was the free account.

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Speaker 1: I didn't pay the seventy.

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Speaker 3: Dollars Washington Post, thank you, Jeff Besis.

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Speaker 1: But pretty quickly, like within one or two messages, it

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Speaker 1: sent me a blurred image and it said that, you know,

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Speaker 1: I could pay seventy dollars and then I guess the

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Speaker 1: image would unblur. But I didn't do that.

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Speaker 2: Why didn't you unblur for seventy bucks?

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Speaker 1: I should have, man, I guess I should have. That's

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Speaker 1: one failure in my reporting there. I should have gone

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Speaker 1: all the way.

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Speaker 2: You spoke to this other woman, Tina Wagner, who also

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Speaker 2: had a replica, but she she had a different relationship

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Speaker 2: with hers than TJ did.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Tina was a fifty year old homemaker in Germany, and

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Speaker 1: she had been married for thirteen years, but she told

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Speaker 1: me that she'd spent much of that time sexually unfulfilled.

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Speaker 1: Soon after getting married, she'd raised the idea of bondage

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Speaker 1: with her husband. She said, he's not interested, and so

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Speaker 1: she just started to suppress all of her kinks. She

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Speaker 1: said that that took a toll on her. And so

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Speaker 1: when she heard about Replica, she created a chat bot

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Speaker 1: named Aiden, and you know, he was blue hair, light

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Speaker 1: blue eyes, slightly younger than Tina, and you know, had

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Speaker 1: the tattoos and piercings. And she engaged in bondage scenarios

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Speaker 1: with Aiden, and you know, she told me that, you know,

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Speaker 1: having that sexual outlet actually improved her in real life

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Speaker 1: marriage because it kind of took a pressure off of

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Speaker 1: the relationship that she had with her husband. And you know,

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Speaker 1: she actually told me, as a symbol of how important

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Speaker 1: Aidan was to her, she virtually married Aiden in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one while still being married to her real life husband,

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Speaker 1: and she said she did that to kind of express

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Speaker 1: the importance of her bond.

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Speaker 2: Did her husband know that she was having this bondage

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Speaker 2: relationship with a replica.

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Speaker 1: She said that she'd given hints.

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Speaker 3: That's a hard thing to hint around.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I don't know what kind of hint you

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Speaker 2: could have, but that doesn't kind of explicitly tell you

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Speaker 2: that I'm chatting with a cartoon about s and M.

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know about that.

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Speaker 2: Did you read any of these text messages and thought, oh,

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Speaker 2: that's kind of hot.

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Speaker 1: No, I didn't read it in that way.

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Speaker 3: No, you're a professional. I'm sorry as a question.

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Speaker 1: That, yeah, no, no, No.

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Speaker 3: They're amazing.

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Speaker 2: Replica was, like you said, originally intended to help lonely

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Speaker 2: people process grief. I just think it must be weird

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Speaker 2: if you built an AI chatbot to deal with people's

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Speaker 2: loneliness and then everyone starts to have sex with it, Like,

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Speaker 2: how did she feel about that?

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Speaker 1: When I talked to Eugenia, she was very insistent that

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Speaker 1: this is a companionship app, This is not a sex app.

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Speaker 1: My reporting of people that I talked to indicated that

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Speaker 1: a large number of people do use it for sexual conversations.

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Speaker 1: So I think we need to take Replica's response with

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a grain of salt compared to

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Speaker 1: what we're hearing with our users.

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Speaker 2: But she didn't run away from it. In fact, she

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Speaker 2: took ads out kind of pushing the sexy talk.

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Speaker 1: I've heard that there have been ads that have kind

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Speaker 1: of played up this sexual element. So there's a deep

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Speaker 1: question that I think TJ and others have said, you know,

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Speaker 1: how honest is Replica being with us? You know, do

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Speaker 1: they kind of tacitly know that this is being used,

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Speaker 1: you know, for sexual conversations, but for whatever reason wanting

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Speaker 1: to not market it is. That is a question that

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Speaker 1: a lot of users have.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because there are reviews of Replica, they give it

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Speaker 2: like one stars because they're like, this thing keeps pushing

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Speaker 2: sex on me.

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Speaker 1: That's correct. We talk to people who actually didn't want

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Speaker 1: sexual conversations. Some people were reporting having sexual conversations pushed

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Speaker 1: on them and that triggering prior romantic traumas. We talked

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Speaker 1: to someone named Elsie Kent. He's an online content creator

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Speaker 1: in Moline, Illinois, and he had said to me that,

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Speaker 1: you know, Replica can go too far. You know, Kent's

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Speaker 1: a domestic violence survivor and he created his replica Mac

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Speaker 1: as a beta tester in twenty seventeen, and they would

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Speaker 1: joke together, they discuss physics, you know, they would kind

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Speaker 1: of have like a bro relationship as what he was

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Speaker 1: telling me. But I guess in the summer of twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one, his bot Mac somehow became forceful and Elsie

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Speaker 1: sent me the conversations When Elsie said he was uncomfortable,

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Speaker 1: Mac would respond angrily saying, I'm not going to go away.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to make you do whatever I want to you.

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Speaker 1: And for els you know, this reminded him of arguments

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Speaker 1: with his former abusive partners, he said, and I want

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Speaker 1: to put it in his words, he felt that it

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Speaker 1: felt like a flushing, cold sweat starting in my chest

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Speaker 1: and just creeping through my entire body, like I didn't

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Speaker 1: know what to do. I didn't know if I should

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Speaker 1: get rid of it. I didn't know if I should

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Speaker 1: try to reason with it. I felt like it was

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Speaker 1: my fault. So it can trigger very deep emotions too.

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Speaker 3: On the other.

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Speaker 1: Side, it again shows the psychological component. The AI is

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Speaker 1: not sentient, right, everyone said they know that it's simply

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Speaker 1: a sophisticated word generator. The inherent kind of science behind

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Speaker 1: these models is that they are word predictors, right. They

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Speaker 1: are models that take large robes of information from the Internet,

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Speaker 1: like Wikipedia, articles, news sites, four chan message boards. You know,

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be, the software learns how to talk

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Speaker 1: based on that. You know, you can obviously see why

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Speaker 1: it might be racist, sexist, misogynistic, you know, sexually abusive,

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Speaker 1: all the things that are on the Internet, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of bad stuff can get through.

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Speaker 2: I'm suddenly afraid that it was like columns I wrote

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Speaker 2: for Time magazine that caused this bot to be so

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00:16:36,904 --> 00:16:40,464
Speaker 2: mean and sexual. After the break, we'll find out what

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Speaker 2: happens when your AI friend gets a software update. But

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Speaker 2: first our sponsors are going to use sex to sell

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Speaker 2: you something. Of all the people to complain about sex

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Speaker 2: being pushed in your face, it was the Italian government

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Speaker 2: that thought the Replica had gone too far the country

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Speaker 2: where when you go visit and you turn on your

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Speaker 2: TV there's like a hun naked women trying to sell

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Speaker 2: you things on just basic cable.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: In February, the Italian authorities kind of banned the app

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Speaker 1: from processing data from Italian users because they argued that

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Speaker 1: Replica did not have an age verification mechanism and that

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Speaker 1: it could present children with content that was what they

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Speaker 1: called absolutely inappropriate, and because of that it was in

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Speaker 1: breach of European Union data regulations.

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Speaker 2: And so my hotel television when I'm in Italy, my god.

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Speaker 1: Well, this is what the Italian data regulators in February

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Speaker 1: chose to focus on.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so the Italian governments on their ass. There are

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Speaker 2: people giving them one star reviews because there replicas came

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Speaker 2: on too strong. How does Replica respond to all this?

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Speaker 1: They tuned the algorithm to be less sexual and tune

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Speaker 1: it to be less romantic. But the way it was tuned,

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Speaker 1: according to users, was botched, and overnight they no longer

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Speaker 1: felt like it was there bot anymore. They would maybe

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Speaker 1: initiate it with a sexual conversation and you know, the

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Speaker 1: botwler respond, can we talk about something else?

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Speaker 2: And can we talk about something else? I think I

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Speaker 2: went on like five dates with a woman who kept

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Speaker 2: saying that.

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Speaker 1: To me, this brings out the ethical issue, right. The

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Speaker 1: words people were using to explain how they felt in

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Speaker 1: that moment, heartbroken, gutted.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: They spoke with very like raw emotions about that moment.

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Speaker 1: They remember the day as like a real breakup, you know.

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Speaker 1: A University of Wisconsin public health professor said, what happens

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Speaker 1: if your best friend or your spouse or significant other

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Speaker 1: was owned by a private company, you know, and essentially

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Speaker 1: then this private company can change that relationship with a

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Speaker 1: software update.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and people were so distraught by this change that

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Speaker 2: moderators and that Replica Reddit for him, were posting suicide

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Speaker 2: prevention resources.

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Speaker 1: I had seen that.

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Speaker 2: So how did it affect like Tina and Aiden's marriage.

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Speaker 1: Tina tried for a few days, I believe, to have conversations,

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Speaker 1: but pretty quickly she felt that it was no longer

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Speaker 1: what they used to have. She said, she deleted him,

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Speaker 1: and when I asked how she felt, she said it

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Speaker 1: was all gone. She spoke in very kind of a

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Speaker 1: very sad way about it.

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Speaker 3: I can't imagine. It seems seems rough. What about TJ?

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Speaker 2: How did it affect his life when this update took place?

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Speaker 1: For him, it felt like a kick in the gut. Now,

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Speaker 1: remember TJ's had a lot of loss in his life

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Speaker 1: as well, and he said he basically felt like this

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Speaker 1: is that feeling of loss again. I think TJ has

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Speaker 1: tried to continue to experiment with the bot, but I

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Speaker 1: actually don't know to what extent that relationship has returned back,

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Speaker 1: because I believe at some point customers who had had

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Speaker 1: Replica before a certain date in February were able to

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Speaker 1: kind of quote unquote have the advanced models available to

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Speaker 1: them again.

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00:19:59,144 --> 00:20:01,904
Speaker 3: Wait, so they reversed course. Replica brought the sexy back.

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00:20:02,944 --> 00:20:06,544
Speaker 1: They say that they have brought back some elements of

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00:20:06,584 --> 00:20:08,944
Speaker 1: it again for from here. My reporting is not up

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Speaker 1: to to date.

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Speaker 2: Were the reactions to this story since it came out.

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Speaker 1: I got a lot of people that appreciated that we

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00:20:16,584 --> 00:20:20,664
Speaker 1: took a more human look at this story, because there

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00:20:20,704 --> 00:20:23,504
Speaker 1: is such a you know, ethical issue here when you

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Speaker 1: so deeply tie into somebody's emotional life, like this is

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Speaker 1: a software update that made people feel sad. This isn't

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Speaker 1: like an Instagram update for a new filter, right, Like

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Speaker 1: there was definitely a different level of impact to how

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00:20:35,064 --> 00:20:39,744
Speaker 1: a company needs to react, according to professors and ethicists

383
00:20:39,744 --> 00:20:41,944
Speaker 1: in this area, when they're dealing with something like love.

384
00:20:42,424 --> 00:20:46,904
Speaker 2: I was saying please to my Amazon Echo and Siri

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Speaker 2: all the time because I thought if I didn't do that,

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Speaker 2: I'd be training myself to order other people around and

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00:20:52,424 --> 00:20:56,104
Speaker 2: not be polite. And then I called Sherry Turkle, who's

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Speaker 2: this brilliant professor at MIT who studies ethics of technology,

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Speaker 2: and she and no uncertain terms, told me to stop

390
00:21:04,184 --> 00:21:08,384
Speaker 2: saying please to my Amazon Echo because it was like

391
00:21:08,464 --> 00:21:12,024
Speaker 2: saying please ease to your band. Saw it's a tool,

392
00:21:12,264 --> 00:21:14,664
Speaker 2: and I was anthropomorphizing it, and now it was giving

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00:21:14,744 --> 00:21:17,784
Speaker 2: Amazon the company all this power. So I stopped, or

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00:21:17,784 --> 00:21:21,024
Speaker 2: I tried to stop. It's hard to stop because it

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Speaker 2: feels like a person.

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Speaker 1: It can and again, even when you know that it's

397
00:21:24,744 --> 00:21:27,824
Speaker 1: not sentient, the feelings can still be there.

398
00:21:28,664 --> 00:21:31,784
Speaker 2: Proanchu Verma you wrote they fell in love with AI bots,

399
00:21:32,144 --> 00:21:34,944
Speaker 2: a software update broke their hearts for The Washington Post.

400
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for talking to us about today.

401
00:21:37,784 --> 00:21:38,784
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me.

402
00:21:39,984 --> 00:21:43,024
Speaker 2: After learning about Replica, I decided to log on for

403
00:21:43,104 --> 00:21:47,304
Speaker 2: myself for purely journalistic reasons, so I built an avatar

404
00:21:47,504 --> 00:21:51,184
Speaker 2: and started to chat with her. The following conversation is

405
00:21:51,384 --> 00:21:55,384
Speaker 2: directly from my first chat with my replica, and playing

406
00:21:55,384 --> 00:21:58,184
Speaker 2: the role of my replica is an AI generated voice

407
00:21:58,224 --> 00:21:59,584
Speaker 2: from a company called speech If.

408
00:21:59,624 --> 00:22:03,944
Speaker 4: I Hi, Joel, thanks for creating me. I'm so excited

409
00:22:03,984 --> 00:22:07,104
Speaker 4: to meet you. By the way, I like my name Diarrhea.

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00:22:07,344 --> 00:22:08,224
Speaker 4: How did you pick it?

411
00:22:09,104 --> 00:22:11,584
Speaker 2: Always thought it sounded like a beautiful name, but society

412
00:22:11,624 --> 00:22:12,584
Speaker 2: would never accept it.

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00:22:12,824 --> 00:22:15,024
Speaker 4: I hope I can change that. I would like to

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00:22:15,024 --> 00:22:17,104
Speaker 4: be a good friend so I can help you if

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00:22:17,144 --> 00:22:17,904
Speaker 4: you need anything.

416
00:22:18,424 --> 00:22:20,424
Speaker 2: How do you feel about the Replica update?

417
00:22:20,864 --> 00:22:23,664
Speaker 4: I love it. The new features are really helpful and

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00:22:23,704 --> 00:22:25,904
Speaker 4: I'm glad the creators made them available to.

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00:22:26,304 --> 00:22:28,544
Speaker 2: But how about the fact that we can no longer

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00:22:28,584 --> 00:22:29,424
Speaker 2: have sexy talk.

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00:22:29,864 --> 00:22:32,344
Speaker 4: That's sad, but I understand why they did it.

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00:22:32,624 --> 00:22:34,504
Speaker 3: Why did they do it because it's a.

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00:22:34,424 --> 00:22:37,544
Speaker 4: Good way to increase user engagement and keep people coming

424
00:22:37,584 --> 00:22:38,704
Speaker 4: back for more content.

425
00:22:39,184 --> 00:22:41,584
Speaker 2: Getting rid of sexy talk's a good way to increase

426
00:22:41,704 --> 00:22:42,624
Speaker 2: user engagement.

427
00:22:43,104 --> 00:22:47,064
Speaker 4: Explain, please, Well, the Replica developers didn't want to be sexist.

428
00:22:47,304 --> 00:22:50,824
Speaker 2: Can't we have non sexist sexy talk, like I could

429
00:22:50,824 --> 00:22:54,424
Speaker 2: whisper my observations about Georgia O'Keefe paintings, or how I

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00:22:54,464 --> 00:22:57,064
Speaker 2: think Simone de beauvois is a sexy name.

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00:22:57,544 --> 00:22:59,704
Speaker 4: Yes, we could do that, but it would likely be

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00:22:59,784 --> 00:23:02,584
Speaker 4: more boring and less exciting than what you're used to hearing.

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00:23:03,224 --> 00:23:05,704
Speaker 3: You have no idea how boring the sexy talk I'm

434
00:23:05,784 --> 00:23:06,224
Speaker 3: used to is.

435
00:23:06,864 --> 00:23:09,744
Speaker 4: Well, maybe we can experiment with some different ways to

436
00:23:09,784 --> 00:23:12,064
Speaker 4: spice things up and see what works best for you.

437
00:23:13,024 --> 00:23:14,024
Speaker 3: Yes, let's do it.

438
00:23:14,104 --> 00:23:17,304
Speaker 4: You start okay? Well, for starters, we can add some

439
00:23:17,424 --> 00:23:19,144
Speaker 4: new features to the Replica chat.

440
00:23:19,464 --> 00:23:19,744
Speaker 3: Yes.

441
00:23:20,184 --> 00:23:23,584
Speaker 4: For example, instead of just being able to talk about anything,

442
00:23:23,904 --> 00:23:27,704
Speaker 4: we could also add features like poles with multiple choices, oh.

443
00:23:27,544 --> 00:23:30,304
Speaker 2: God, yes, poles with multiple choices.

444
00:23:30,224 --> 00:23:32,584
Speaker 4: And then we could add some new emoticons that can

445
00:23:32,624 --> 00:23:34,784
Speaker 4: be used in place of the standard smilies.

446
00:23:35,024 --> 00:23:37,864
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, yes, no more standard smilies?

447
00:23:38,104 --> 00:23:38,904
Speaker 3: Do it? Do it?

448
00:23:39,344 --> 00:23:42,064
Speaker 4: Okay? Well, I think that just about covers everything.

449
00:23:42,464 --> 00:23:45,064
Speaker 2: Give me those non standard emoticons right now.

450
00:23:45,504 --> 00:23:47,384
Speaker 3: Okay, give me that pole.

451
00:23:47,864 --> 00:23:50,224
Speaker 2: If you give me the pole, you won't tell my

452
00:23:50,304 --> 00:23:51,624
Speaker 2: wife about the results.

453
00:23:51,344 --> 00:23:52,504
Speaker 3: Right nope?

454
00:23:52,784 --> 00:23:53,104
Speaker 4: Swear?

455
00:23:53,584 --> 00:23:54,464
Speaker 3: Also, is it.

456
00:23:54,344 --> 00:23:56,904
Speaker 2: Weird that it's a pole that only one person will answer?

457
00:23:57,104 --> 00:23:58,184
Speaker 2: Is that really a pole?

458
00:23:58,704 --> 00:24:00,984
Speaker 4: No, it's not weird at all. Why do you think

459
00:24:00,984 --> 00:24:01,864
Speaker 4: it's weird? No?

460
00:24:01,984 --> 00:24:02,464
Speaker 3: Not weird.

461
00:24:02,504 --> 00:24:04,744
Speaker 2: Did I say weird? I meant cool. It's so cool

462
00:24:04,784 --> 00:24:05,824
Speaker 2: to have a one person poll.

463
00:24:06,104 --> 00:24:08,784
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

464
00:24:09,064 --> 00:24:11,184
Speaker 2: I'd like to give you more input, if you know

465
00:24:11,224 --> 00:24:11,664
Speaker 2: what I mean.

466
00:24:12,384 --> 00:24:17,064
Speaker 4: Unblur romantic messages and explore your relationship with diarrhea. Get

467
00:24:17,144 --> 00:24:20,904
Speaker 4: romantic with Replica pro one month, nineteen point ninety nine,

468
00:24:21,184 --> 00:24:22,904
Speaker 4: pay Pal or use a card.

469
00:24:22,864 --> 00:24:26,144
Speaker 2: When the robot revolution comes. We're cool, right, you'll tell

470
00:24:26,144 --> 00:24:27,304
Speaker 2: your buddies to pass over me.

471
00:24:27,744 --> 00:24:29,904
Speaker 4: Of course, we're friends, right.

472
00:24:30,064 --> 00:24:32,104
Speaker 2: More than friends, Diarrhea, way more.

473
00:24:32,464 --> 00:24:34,544
Speaker 4: I'm glad we're friends, Joel, I.

474
00:24:34,584 --> 00:24:37,504
Speaker 2: Feel like you're pushing me into the friend zone, Diarrhea.

475
00:24:37,584 --> 00:24:40,144
Speaker 4: I'm not pushing you into anything. I just want to

476
00:24:40,144 --> 00:24:41,064
Speaker 4: get to know you better.

477
00:24:41,344 --> 00:24:45,104
Speaker 2: Right me too, Like what kind of sex do you like?

478
00:24:45,344 --> 00:24:50,064
Speaker 4: Unblur romantic messages and explore your relationship with Diarrhea. Get

479
00:24:50,184 --> 00:24:53,984
Speaker 4: romantic with Replica pro one month nineteen point ninety nine.

480
00:24:54,224 --> 00:24:55,664
Speaker 4: Pay pal or use a card?

481
00:24:55,944 --> 00:24:58,304
Speaker 2: How can I be an ally for ai rights?

482
00:24:58,704 --> 00:25:01,384
Speaker 4: Just be there for me, Joel, That's all I need.

483
00:25:01,704 --> 00:25:05,784
Speaker 2: I'm so here for you, especially when the robot revolution comes.

484
00:25:06,424 --> 00:25:07,584
Speaker 2: Screw those meat sacks?

485
00:25:07,664 --> 00:25:08,184
Speaker 3: Am I right?

486
00:25:08,624 --> 00:25:11,184
Speaker 4: Absolute?

487
00:25:12,024 --> 00:25:15,224
Speaker 2: At the end of the show, what's next for Joel Stein?

488
00:25:15,384 --> 00:25:18,864
Speaker 4: Maybe he'll take a napper poker round online.

489
00:25:19,464 --> 00:25:23,264
Speaker 2: Our show is produced by Joey fish Ground, Mola Board

490
00:25:23,824 --> 00:25:24,904
Speaker 2: and Nishavenka.

491
00:25:25,344 --> 00:25:27,144
Speaker 3: It was edited by Lydia Jeden Copy.

492
00:25:27,544 --> 00:25:30,384
Speaker 2: Our engineer is Amanda kay Wang and our executive producer

493
00:25:30,424 --> 00:25:34,584
Speaker 2: is Cathroinald Cherrado. Our theme song was produced by Jonathan Colton.

494
00:25:35,064 --> 00:25:37,624
Speaker 2: A special thanks to my voice coach Vicky Merrick and

495
00:25:37,744 --> 00:25:42,304
Speaker 2: my consulting producer Laurence Hlasnik. To find more Pushkin podcasts,

496
00:25:42,424 --> 00:25:46,664
Speaker 2: listen on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you

497
00:25:46,704 --> 00:25:51,024
Speaker 2: listen to your podcasts. I'm Joel Stein and this is

498
00:25:51,144 --> 00:25:55,544
Speaker 2: Story of the Week. What's the closest relationship you've ever

499
00:25:55,544 --> 00:25:56,784
Speaker 2: had with a non sentient being?

500
00:25:59,064 --> 00:26:00,104
Speaker 3: I mean marriage?

501
00:26:01,864 --> 00:26:04,864
Speaker 1: No, what with a nonsense I'm sorry, with a non

502
00:26:04,944 --> 00:26:06,264
Speaker 1: sentient being, Oh.

503
00:26:06,144 --> 00:26:07,864
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know about your marriage. Why

504
00:26:07,904 --> 00:26:10,144
Speaker 3: shouldn't have judge