Replika founder Eugenia Kuyda opens Wabi, a multiplayer AI assistant, to everyone

Eugenia Kuyda, who founded the AI companion app Replika, opened her new startup’s product to all users on October 19, TechCrunch reported. Wabi is a personal AI assistant that works like a messenger: users keep separate threads for goals such as health, family or travel, and the agent builds small apps inside each one. After connecting email, it sets up threads and apps on its own.

The twist is that threads can be shared as group chats. Kuyda showed TechCrunch a thread with her boyfriend containing a live music tracker, a restaurant list, a shared reading list and an app that asks a daily question about their relationship. Users decide what personal data each chat can see, and Kuyda said everyone in a chat sees when someone’s information is requested. Wabi is free for now and has no settled business model; Kuyda said the company is in talks to raise more money.

Replika, as Kuyda put it, set out to make people feel less lonely. With Wabi, the companion steps back from being the relationship and tries to become its scheduler, sitting in the middle of a couple rather than replacing one partner.