By Alex Kantrowitz

You may soon have an AI agent helping you navigate the world. That agent will know lots about you — things like where you travel, what you buy, when you’re stressed — and its only objective will be to please you. This bot may turn out to be a dispassionate helper. But as the technology advances, it may well become your AI friend, or even something more.

That, at least, is the future AI companion app Replika is betting on. The company already has millions of users who’ve built relationships with AI companions, and now it’s looking to extend those virtual connections into its users’ physical lives.