Watch Episode Here

Read Episode Description

Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg sit down with Eugenia Kuyda, the founder of Replika, to discuss the intricacies of creating compassionate AI to offer companionship and address loneliness. Eugenia addresses the controversy of Replika limiting erotic roleplay for its users.

(01:08) Sponsor
(01:37) Introducing Eugenia
(03:25) Replika’s controversial choice to limit erotic roleplay functionality
(04:25) Eugenia's vision for Replika
(05:58) Augmented Reality is the Ultimate Modality
(07:52) Using Replika
(13:11) Profound stories about virtual assistants
(15:55) Eugenia on why Replika is more than just a painkiller or vitamin
(28:50) Replika's business model and profitability
(34:12) Users want their Replika to surprise them
(36:12) Why ChatGPT is not a conversational model
(49:26) Eugenia's prediction for the "next Iphone of personal AI"
(1:03:00) Eugenia’s AI tools/stack
(1:15:00) Eugenia comes back to discuss Erotic Roleplay controversy
(1:18:00) Replika’s first reaction to users ERP
(1: 22:00) How the product evolved from 90% scripts & retrieval models
(1:24:00) The definitive focus for Replika to stay in a PG13 zone
(1:26:00) “Normal” evolution given sci-fi depictions of AI romances
(1:30:00) Current AI ethics on sexuality
(1:37:07) Response to journalists misportrayal
(1:40:29) Sponsor

Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real time advertising data, to generate personalized experiences at scale.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter where we unpack each episode and share analysis: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/

Twitter:
@CogRev_Podcast
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@labenz (Nathan)
@ekuyda (Eugenia)

Thank you Graham Bessellieu for editing and production.

Websites:
cognitivervolution.ai
https://replika.ai/