Replika’s founder built the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt 12 years ago

Key points

• Eugenia Kuyda has officially launched Wabi for all users, a multiplayer personal AI assistant that works like a messenger app. Twelve years after presenting an early chatbot called IO at TechCrunch Disrupt, she says the technology has caught up with her original vision.
• Users can keep several threads for different tasks and goals, and the agent builds custom apps within them. Kuyda says separate threads avoid the information overload of a single long conversation.
• Wabi is free for now, and its business model has not been settled. Kuyda said the company is in talks to raise more funds.