Publications
Publications
- 2024
- HBS Working Paper Series
Lessons from an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationships
By: Julian De Freitas, Noah Castelo, Ahmet Uğuralp and Zeliha Uğuralp
Abstract
Can consumers form deep emotional bonds with AI and be vested in AI identities over time? We
leverage a natural app-update event at Replika AI, a popular US-based AI companion, to shed
light on these questions. We find that customers feel closer to their AI companion than even their
best human friend. However, after the app removed its erotic role play (ERP) feature, preventing
intimate interactions between consumers and chatbots that were previously possible, this event
triggered perceptions in customers that their AI companion’s identity had discontinued. This in
turn predicted negative consumer welfare and marketing outcomes related to loss, including
mourning the loss, and devaluing the ‘new’ AI relative to the ‘original’. Experimental evidence
confirms these findings. In short, we quantify the closeness of the relationship with AI
companions, measure well-being and marketing impacts of perceived discontinuity in the AI’s
identity, show causal evidence that app updates can result in perceptions of the AI’s identity
discontinuity, and determine what types of app changes are most likely to elicit these
impressions. Our results illustrate the benefits and risks to both consumers and firms associated
with the growing prevalence of AI companions.
Keywords
Citation
De Freitas, Julian, Noah Castelo, Ahmet Uğuralp, and Zeliha Uğuralp. "Lessons from an App Update at Replika AI: Identity Discontinuity in Human-AI Relationships." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-018, October 2024. (Revised December 2024.)