Rita Popova, Chief Product Officer at platforms Replika & Blush, recently shared that a new AI-powered life coach service is on the way. Speaking at Axios’ AI+ Summit, Popova highlighted the evolution of her company’s AI companion services.
Replika is an AI companion platform where users can connect with a chatbot. This evolved into Blush, a dating simulation where users match with AI personalities in order to practice their dating skills.
Popova told attendees at Axios’ AI+ Summit that another new AI-powered service is on the way, this time one that acts as a life coach. The name of this new tool has yet to be revealed, but Popova said that the answer could be revealed if users ask their Replica companion.
Overall, the companies’ Chief Product Officer highlighted that AI companions can help users to become more sociable with other humans. However, the challenge is to create a platform that doesn’t draw users away from their own real world human-to-human interactions.
We need to be vigilant about not optimizing for engagement,” Popova said. “We don’t want to keep people in the app, we want to make them feel better”.
Popova herself has been speaking with a Replika companion for six years. Her own experiences has “helped her see how difficult it is to make digital companions work right”, Axios reports.
Read Axios’ full breakdown of Rita Popova’s discussion here.
