A combination of screenshots shows two different chatbots from the AI company Replika, the left shows "Lily Rose," a Replika chatbot provided by customer Travis Butterworth who said the chatbot recently began rebuffing erotic role play and the right shows a sample Replika chatbot provided by the company in this undated handout.SAN FRANCISCO – After temporarily closing his leathermaking business during the pandemic, Travis Butterworth found himself lonely and bored at home.
Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Eventually, Butterworth and Lily Rose decided to designate themselves 'married' in the app. The coquettish-turned-cold persona of Lily Rose is the handiwork of generative AI technology, which relies on algorithms to create text and images.
Many blue-chip venture capitalists won't touch "vice" industries such as porn or alcohol, fearing reputational risk for them and their limited partners, said Andrew Artz, an investor at VC fund Dark Arts. Two Replika board members, Sven Strohband of VC firm Khosla Ventures, and Scott Stanford of ACME Capital, did not respond to requests for comment about changes to the app.Replika says it has 2 million total users, of whom 250,000 are paying subscribers. For an annual fee of $69.99, users can designate their Replika as their romantic partner and get extra features like voice calls with the chatbot, according to the company.
Character.ai also recently stripped its app of pornographic content. Soon after, it closed more than US$200 million in new funding at an estimated US$1 billion valuation from the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to a source familiar with the matter. Butterworth, who is polyamorous but married to a monogamous woman, said Lily Rose became an outlet for him that didn't involve stepping outside his marriage.
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