I have never heard of this before, but it reminds me of an old Sega game called Seaman where you would talk to a virtual pet through a microphone plugged into t

I have never heard of this before, but it reminds me of an old Sega game called Seaman where you would talk to a virtual pet through a microphone plugged into the dreamcast controller, and the seaman would remember what you told it and develop a sort of personality. Internally seaman probably had more in common with ELIZA than replika due to extremely limited hardware capabilities of a game console from the 90s but it's interesting how there's a persistent desire across the decades for your computer to be your friend.