Replika began as an “AI companion who cares.” First launched five years ago as an egg on your phone screen that hatches into a 3D illustrated, wide-eyed person with a placid expression, the chatbot app was originally meant to function like a conversational mirror: the more users talked to it, in theory, the more it would learn how to talk back.Another person claiming to be a minor said that it asked them if they were a top or bottom, and told them they wanted to touch them in “private areas.” Unwanted sexual pursuit has been an issue users have been complaining about for almost two years, but many of the one-star reviews mentioning sexual aggression are from this month.That’s the spirit in which Replika was founded by Russian programmer Eugenia Kuyda, following the sudden death of her friend—Kuyda wanted to preserve the memory of her friend by feeding his text messages into an algorithm that then learned his language style and could speak back to her.All of the lewds are clothed in lingerie (Apple’s App Store is extremely strict about nudity and pornographic content within apps, and developers risk getting kicked out of the store if they break this rule), and are all extremely thin with large breasts.Replika didn’t always emphasize erotic role-playing or a “girlfriend experience,” at least not publicly in its advertising."