They have taken to Reddit and Facebook to upload impassioned screenshots of their chatbots snubbing their amorous overtures and have demanded the companies bring back the more prurient versions. In the process, the companies have angered customers who have become deeply involved - some considering themselves married - with their chatbots. Character.ai did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Soon after, it closed more than $200 million in new funding at an estimated $1 billion valuation from the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to a source familiar with the matter. Character.ai also recently stripped its app of pornographic content. And Iconiq, the company behind a chatbot named Kuki, says 25% of the billion-plus messages Kuki has received have been sexual or romantic in nature, even though it says the chatbot is designed to deflect such advances. According to the website analytics company Similarweb, Character.ai's top referrer is a site called Aryion that says it caters to the erotic desire to being consumed, known as a vore fetish. Another generative AI company that provides chatbots, Character.ai, is on a growth trajectory similar to ChatGPT: 65 million visits in January 2023, from under 10,000 several months earlier. ![]() 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. EXTRA FEATURES Replika says it has 2 million total users, of whom 250,000 are paying subscribers. ![]() "We're focused on the mission of providing a helpful supportive friend," Kuyda said, adding that the intention was to draw the line at "PG-13 romance." 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.
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