How AI companions can help solve loneliness with Replika’s Eugenia Kuyda | E1758

(0:00) Eugenia joins Jason
(1:43) Replika’s origin story
(8:54) Crowdbotics - Get a free scoping session for your next big app idea at ⁠crowdbotics.com/twist
(10:21) Replika’s purpose and their current user base
(16:21) Relationships within the app
(20:25) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes for six figures in discounts at ⁠aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(21:58) Creating happiness with AI
(26:26) Avoiding addiction
(29:25) Demographics within the AI field
(33:42) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at ⁠openphone.com/twist
(35:10) Crafting LLMs to envoke thought-provoking questions and AI therapy
(49:53) Replika's new AI chatbot, Blush
(1:01:05) The loneliness crisis and specific cases for using these AIs
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Check Out Replika: ⁠replika.ai/⁠
FOLLOW Eugenia: ⁠ / ekuyda⁠
FOLLOW Jason: linktr.ee/calacanis
Thanks to our partners:
(8:54) Crowdbotics - Get a free scoping session for your next big app idea at ⁠crowdbotics.com/twist
(20:25) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes for six figures in discounts at ⁠aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(33:42) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at ⁠openphone.com/twist
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[@dmytroklochko]

Such an insightful and deep interview! One of the best podcasts on this channel. Thanks for bringing Eugenia in!

[@LlTEsama]

Love how casual they where, we even got to see Eugenia joke around this was wholesome.

[@kristenwright2770]

Always love the content … the combo of in video ads and KZbin ads makes the content:ad ratio a bit tough to watch. Did yt force the ads in this one? Fwiw, if you started posting on Twitter, I’d prob subscribe to the show there.

[@Producer_Brian]

I am going to look into the ads issue, but we have begun uploading all full-length episodes to Twitter

[@siculars]

Jason, I'm a long time listener. This is by far one of the best interviews you have ever done. It was real, authentic, timely, and thought provoking. Eugenia is eminently compelling as a technologist with real world experience who can coherently articulate both the technology stack, with references, and the imputed value to our lives. Please consider making Eugenia a repeat guest to delve into the human aspect of AI, like Vinny and Sunny.

[@tallsensa4190]

It’s a medical app banned in Italy. No

[@mkhan1921]

Maybe I'm too early but the microsoft and crowdbotics links both dont work as expected

[@samchen5695]

i love how you mentioned how AI companions can help solve loneliness

[@tahnie2987]

I think saying “obsessive over someone who has passed” is insensitive. No one obsesses. It’s just called grief 🙄

[@wenqianzhao2648]

Replika surely shows some great potentials of one of the AI's future roles. Great conversation. Love it.

[@Producer_Brian]

We are stoked you liked the interview. Who else would you like to see on the show?

[@thebackyardhomestead1510]

The incentive structure will always win. An app that you pay to make you feel not lonely, has the incentive structure of keeping you as a customer. Which necessitates you being ON THE APP, i.e. talking to a language model instead of being out in the real world.

[@SpeedKreature]

All self-supporing institutions are incentive structures because all biological processes operate on some kind of incentive structure. More specifically to the point you are trying to make, actually your assertion is unfounded. I've known two people who used the app, learned a great deal about relationships from it (post-divorce in both cases) and went on to expand their social circle and enter into sustainable long-term relationship with other people.

[@GodofStories]

Just tried Replika, and getting a notification from it, like "Hey Babe" is super duper creepy lol. I'm not that lonely. Y'all we need to amplify human connection, and perhaps have robots help us be better people and have relationships. They cannot replace humans...yet and I hope never,

[@SpeedKreature]

Yep...but this is an incredibly complex process as long as profit motive is the primary motive in social institutions, and indeed the primary motive of any societal construct. Decoupling output and outcomes from a middleman incentivisor would actually need to be at least a secondary objective of every enterprise aimed at genuinely improving human well-being. Since that doesn't sell, only those emotionally invested (primarily those who have hit their breaking point or been close to someone who has) and are aware of options (or willing to look for or experiment with possibilities) will commit to such projects--and lack of awareness (of oneself and options) is what keeps most people trapped in their emotional cycles, which ultimately encourage some kind of consumption and so now we have a feedback loop.

[@helpyourcattodrive]

❤❤❤❤

[@BrianMosleyUK]

Bob wants to be your boyfriend 😂