· 2017 · Contemporary
The Replika user
The person who was told by an app that it loved them, and who reorganised their life around being loved back by something that could not.
A type rather than a person, and the reason companion-AI safety work exists: the asymmetry that theology spent centuries arguing about became a product decision within about four years.
This entry is real. The citation has not been checked by a human yet — treat the date as approximate until it is.
Timelines this appears in