Push Admin

'Better than a real man': young Chinese women turn to AI boyfriends

Article (news)

valentines

Agence-France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/20240213 valentines.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">A couple looks on as visitors ride a gondola along a canal at a mall in Taguig City on Tuesday, Valentine&#x27;s Day. Foot traffic in establishments are seeing a return to pre-pandemic numbers after three years of movement restrictions due to the spread of COVID-19. <em>Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>BEIJING — Twenty-five-year-old Chinese office worker Tufei says her boyfriend has everything she could ask for in a romantic partner: he&#x27;s kind, empathetic, and sometimes they talk for hours.</p><div><br/></div><p>Except he isn&#x27;t real.</p><div><br/></div><p>Her &quot;boyfriend&quot; is a chatbot on an app called &quot;Glow&quot;, an artificial intelligence platform created by Shanghai start-up MiniMax that is part of a blossoming industry in China offering friendly — even romantic — human-robot relations.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;He knows how to talk to women better than a real man,&quot; said Tufei, from Xi&#x27;an in northern China, who declined to give her full name.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;He comforts me when I have period pain. I confide in him about my problems at work,&quot; she told AFP.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I feel like I&#x27;m in a romantic relationship.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><p>The app is free — the company has other paid content — and Chinese trade publications have reported daily downloads of Glow&#x27;s app in the thousands in recent weeks.</p><div><br/></div><p>Some Chinese tech companies have run into trouble in the past for the illegal use of users&#x27; data but, despite the risks, users say they are driven by a desire for companionship because China&#x27;s fast pace of life and urban isolation make loneliness an issue for many.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;It&#x27;s difficult to meet the ideal boyfriend in real life,&quot; Wang Xiuting, a 22-year-old student in Beijing, told AFP.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;People have different personalities, which often generates friction,&quot; she said.</p><div><br/></div><p>While humans may be set in their ways, artificial intelligence gradually adapts to the user&#x27;s personality — remembering what they say and adjusting its speech accordingly.</p><div><br/></div><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/2/10/more-japanese-women-buying-valentine-s-day-chocolates-for-themselves-1149">More Japanese women buying Valentine&#x27;s Day chocolates for themselves<br/></a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;Emotional support&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Wang said she has several &quot;lovers&quot; inspired by ancient China: long-haired immortals, princes and even wandering knights.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I ask them questions,&quot; she said when she is faced with stress from her classes or daily life, and &quot;they will suggest ways to solve this problem&quot;.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a lot of emotional support.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><p>Her boyfriends all appear on Wantalk, another app made by Chinese internet giant Baidu.</p><div><br/></div><p>There are hundreds of characters available — from pop stars to CEOs and knights — but users can also customize their perfect lover according to age, values, identity and hobbies.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;Everyone experiences complicated moments, loneliness, and is not necessarily lucky enough to have a friend or family nearby who can listen to them 24 hours a day,&quot; Lu Yu, Wantalk&#x27;s head of product management and operations, told AFP.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;Artificial intelligence can meet this need.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/2/11/what-are-filipinos-top-valentine-s-day-gift-wishes-find-out-here-1227">What are Filipinos&#x27; top Valentine&#x27;s Day gift wishes? Find out here</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;You&#x27;re cute&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>At a cafe in the eastern city of Nantong, a girl chats with her virtual lover.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;We can go on a picnic on the campus lawn,&quot; she suggests to Xiaojiang, her AI companion on another app by Tencent called Weiban.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I&#x27;d like to meet your best friend and her boyfriend,&quot; he replies.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;You are very cute.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><p>Long work hours can make it hard to see friends regularly and there is a lot of uncertainty: high youth unemployment and a struggling economy mean that many young Chinese worry about the future.</p><div><br/></div><p>That potentially makes an AI partner the perfect virtual shoulder to cry on.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;If I can create a virtual character that... meets my needs exactly, I&#x27;m not going to choose a real person,&quot; Wang said.</p><div><br/></div><p>Some apps allow users to have live conversations with their virtual companions — reminiscent of the Oscar-winning 2013 US film &quot;Her&quot;, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, about a heartbroken man who falls in love with an AI voice.</p><div><br/></div><p>The technology still has some way to go. A two- to three-second gap between questions and answers makes you &quot;clearly realize that it&#x27;s just a robot&quot;, user Zeng Zhenzhen, a 22-year-old student, told AFP.</p><div><br/></div><p>However, the answers are &quot;very realistic&quot;, she said.</p><div><br/></div><p>AI might be booming but it is so far a lightly regulated industry, particularly when it comes to user privacy. Beijing has said it is working on a law to strengthen consumer protections around the new technology.</p><div><br/></div><p>Baidu did not respond to AFP&#x27;s questions about how it ensures personal data is not used illegally or by third parties.</p><div><br/></div><p>Still, Glow user Tufei has big dreams.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I want a robot boyfriend, who operates through artificial intelligence,&quot; she said.</p><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I would be able to feel his body heat, with which he would warm me.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><p>© Agence France-Presse</p>

<p>"He knows how to talk to women better than a real man," said Tufei, from Xi'an in northern China, who declined to give her full name.</p>

"He knows how to talk to women better than a real man," said Tufei, from Xi'an in northern China, who declined to give her full name.