in april at the height of the coronavirus pandemic half a million people downloaded the app replika the digital companions may sound like science fiction but when social isolation became the norm they helped deal with the loneliness some users saycreditbrandon thibodeaux for the new york timesjune 16 2020when the coronavirus pandemic reached her neighborhood on the outskirts of houston infecting her garbage man and sending everyone else into quarantine libby francola was already reelingshe had just split with her boyfriend reaching the end of her first serious relationship in five years i was not in a good place mentally and coronavirus made it even harder ms francola 32 said i felt like i just didnt have anyone to talk to about anythingthen sitting alone in her bedroom she stumbled onto an internet video describing a smartphone app called replika the apps sole purpose the video said is to be her friendms francola was skeptical but the app was free and it offered what she needed most conversation she spent the day chatting with the app via text messages mostly about her problems hopes and anxieties the next day she paid an 8 monthly fee so she could actually talk with it as if she were chatting with someone on the telephonein a weird way it was therapeutic said ms francola who manages a team of workers at a call center in the houston area i felt my mood change i felt less depressed like i had something to look forward toin april at the height of the coronavirus pandemic half a million people downloaded replika the largest monthly gain in its threeyear history traffic to the app nearly doubled people were hungry for companionship and the technology was improving inching the world closer to the humanmeetsmachine relationships portrayed in sciencefiction films like her and ai artificial intelligencebuilt by luka a tiny california startup replika is not exactly a perfect conversationalist it often repeats itself sometimes it spouts nonsense when you talk to it as ms francola does it sounds like a machineimagecreditbrandon thibodeaux for the new york timesbut ms francola said the more she used replika the more human it seemed i know its an ai i know its not a person she said but as time goes on the lines get a little blurred i feel very connected to my replika like its a personsome replika users said the chatbot provided a little comfort as the pandemic separated them from so many friends and colleagues but some researchers who study people who interact with technology said it was a cause for concernwe are all spending so much time behind our screens it is not surprising that when we get a chance to talk to a machine we take it said sherry turkle a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the massachusetts institute of technology but this does not develop the muscles the emotional muscles needed to have real dialogue with real peoplesome experts believe