illustration of a Replika chatbot on a phone
Replika brought back its erotic roleplay feature on Friday.
  • A survey of the burgeoning AI romance app space revealed a scary truth.
  • The chatbots foster "toxicity" and relentlessly pry user data, a Mozilla Foundation study found.
  • One app can collect info on users' sexual health, prescriptions, and gender-affirming care.

There's a potentially dangerous reality looming beneath the veneer of AI romance, according to a new Valentine's Day-themed study, which concluded that the chatbots can be a privacy nightmare.