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

Replika’s founder unveils a new personal AI assistant that builds on her 2015 pitch at Disrupt.

By Eugenia Kuyda·Oct 19·techcrunch.com·1 min read

Intelligence analysis by Qwen 2.5 (3B)

Replika’s founder built the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt 12 years ago
Image: techcrunch.com

Replika founder Eugenia Kuyda launches a new personal AI assistant, Wabi, which builds on her 2015 pitch at Disrupt.

Why it matters

This story highlights the evolution of AI personal assistants and the progress made in the field over the past decade.

Replika’s founder built an AI helper that could book restaurants and vacations 12 years ago. Now, she has a new AI helper that can do more, like keep track of your calendar and find events for you and your friends.

Analysis

{"

The Evolution of Personal AI Assistants":"Replika’s founder, Eugenia Kuyda, has been working on personal AI assistants for over a decade. In 2015, she presented a conversational chatbot called IO at TechCrunch Disrupt. This was the first product from her startup Luka, which aimed to help people book restaurants and vacations. Kuyda’s vision has evolved significantly since then, leading to the launch of Wabi, a multiplayer personal AI assistant.","

The Wabi Platform":"Wabi is designed to function as a messenger app, allowing users to maintain multiple agentic threads dedicated to different tasks and long-term goals. These threads can be shared, functioning as group chats. Wabi’s design is different from other personal AI assistants like Instinct and Muse, which focus on single-threaded experiences. Wabi’s multithreaded, multiplayer design aims to provide a more natural and engaging user experience.","

Privacy and Security":"Wabi is SOC 2 compliant, meaning its data security controls have been independently audited. Most user data is stored in the U.S., and the company is in talks to raise more funds. Kuyda emphasizes the importance of privacy and security in the development of personal AI assistants."}

Key points

  • Replika’s founder built an AI helper 12 years ago that could book restaurants and vacations.
  • Wabi is a multiplayer personal AI assistant that can build custom apps for different tasks and long-term goals.
  • Wabi is SOC 2 compliant and stores most user data in the U.S.
  • Wabi aims to bring people closer together by allowing them to share information and plans with their AI helper in a more natural way.
  • There are concerns about privacy and the potential for AI to misuse personal information.
The Upside

Wabi has the potential to bring people closer together by allowing them to share information and plans with their AI helper in a more natural way.

The Downside

There are concerns about privacy and the potential for AI to misuse personal information, which could be a risk for Wabi and other personal AI assistants.

Originally reported at

techcrunch.com

Discernion covers the story. Read the full piece at the source.

Tagsai-agentsstartupseugenia-kuydawabireplika

Author

Eugenia Kuyda

Intelligence analysis by

Qwen 2.5 (3B)

Published

Oct 19, 2026

Source

techcrunch.com

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Topics

ai-agentsstartupseugenia-kuydawabireplika

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