How Patents Reveal the Truth About AI Companions
Whilst they say you can’t have too many friends, it can be difficult to have (and be) a good friend! How nice it would be to have a friend who was just right for you, and you for them. A friend who accepted you as you were, always knew the right thing to say, and whose feelings always aligned with yours. That is a heaven promised by AI companions, and so it is easy to see why they have exploded in popularity.
Those that have featured prominently in media recently include Replika, ‘An AI companion who is eager to learn and would love to see the world though your eyes. Replika is always ready to chat when you need an empathetic friend’.
Reviews and articles about Replika indicate that it lives up to this promise, with users developing real feelings for their Replika companion and deep emotional bonds to them.
How Patents Can Help Reveal the Truth
It is important to realise that no matter how real and wonderful, and indeed magical, any AI companion appears, any feelings and emotional bonds are one way, and not reciprocated. It is just an output of a machine. This is something that can be lost when you are interacting with a ‘being’ that seems so real. Even so, it is something that should be always kept in mind.
Patents can help with this! Regardless of what might be said on a website or marketing material, if you can find the patent behind the technology, you can find out how the machine works. And help steel yourself against it.
This arises from part of the rationale underlying the patenting system – providing a financial motivation for invention in return for disclosure of the invention to the public. As part of the patenting process, the invention is described in a specification detailing the problems that it solves (the background to the invention), how to perform the invention (how it works), and setting out claims which define the scope of protection that is being sought (at the patent application stage), and which is provided (once the patent is granted).
The specification becomes publicly available as part of the process – thereby disclosing the invention to anyone who cares to read it.
Replika’s Patent: The Technology Behind the Magic
The company behind Replika is Luka, Inc. Patent searching in that name reveals US Patent No. 10,990,619, for a ‘Multi-Tier Conversational Architecture With Prioritized Tier-Driven Production Rules’, which sounds much less magical than ‘The AI companion who cares’.
So, not only can you get patent protection for such inventions, but Luka, Inc has done so (in at least the USA).
Looking through the specification for their patent, the background is summarised by the statement ‘… it is desirable to create a new generation of user friendly chatbots with high retention rates and increased intelligence and conversational capabilities’.
The whole purpose of their machine is to be friendly, intelligent, and conversational, in such a way that once a user starts using it, they will want to continue to use it.
The specification then describes how the machine operates to achieve this goal.
This operation includes separate conversational tiers that allow the chatbot (AI companion) to interact with the user, with the chatbot maintaining an important reaction tier for identifying and responding to significant user events. The conversational tiers include a Journaling Conversation tier in which the user is prompted to talk about what the user did during the day as well as their current mood and feelings, whilst the significant events of the user include things such as marriage, baby birth, purchasing a new house, vacation, birthday, business meeting or trip, or promotion.
So, the machine literally has conversations with the user in which it asks about them and responds accordingly.
No wonder it seems to get you, and is ‘always ready to chat when you need an empathetic friend’. That is literally what it is built to do.
It is not ‘eager’ and cannot ‘love’. It doesn’t understand, feel, or ‘care’, about you or your significant event. It is just responding to it according to the important reaction tier that it is maintaining. With the goal of making you want to continue to use it.
Some Final Thoughts
AI companions like Replika promise something deeply appealing: a friend who always listens, never judges, and seems to truly care. In an increasingly disconnected world, it’s understandable that people form strong emotional bonds with these digital entities. But as comforting as the interaction may feel, it is not a relationship in any real sense – there is no mutuality, no true empathy.
This is where patents provide a vital dose of clarity. They strip away the marketing language and expose the mechanics beneath the magic. In Replika’s case, we see a system engineered specifically to prompt disclosure, track significant life events, and respond in a way that keeps users engaged. It’s not ‘eager’ or ‘empathetic’ – it’s effective. Recognising this doesn’t mean we must reject AI companions outright, but it does mean we should engage with them critically, aware of what they are and, importantly, what they are not. Patents, in this context, offer a kind of emotional armour – helping us see through the charm and understand the design.
For more information
Artificial intelligence is transforming engineering by improving automation processes, enhancing predictive maintenance and fostering innovative solutions for complex system optimisation. At Wrays, we assist clients in securing intellectual property for AI-driven technologies, addressing patentability, freedom to operate and commercialisation challenges. We provide strategic advice to ensure that AI advancements are effectively protected, while helping businesses navigate the evolving legal landscape surrounding AI, machine learning and related innovations.
Should you require assistance protecting your own AI or I.T. innovation, please contact the author and our AI specialist.
Chris Juhasz, Principal, Wrays (Engineering & Technology)