Facing difficulties to meet real boyfriends in real life, women in China are now turning to AI boyfriends. They feel AI boyfriends are available for them and can provide emotional support whenever they need it. Though AI is a booming industry, it comes with its own risks and experts have raised concerns over user's privacy. Her boyfriend has everything she could ask for in a romantic partner: he's kind, empathetic, and sometimes they talk for hours. He is successful, kind, provides emotional support, always knows just what to say and is available 24/7. But the only catch is- he isn't real.
With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), young women in China are reportedly choosing chatbots as virtual boyfriends. Twenty-five-year-old Chinese office worker Tufei's boyfriend is a chatbot on an app called "Glow", an artificial intelligence platform created by Shanghai start-up MiniMax, according to a report in AFP.
"He knows how to talk to women better than a real man," said Tufei, from Xi'an in northern China. "He comforts me when I have period pain. I confide in him about my problems at work," she told AFP.
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"I feel like I'm in a romantic relationship."
The app is free -- the company has other paid content -- and Chinese trade publications have reported daily downloads of Glow's app in the thousands in recent weeks.
Some Chinese tech companies have landed in trouble in the past for the illegal use of use of users' data. But despite that, users say they are driven by a desire for companionship because China's fast pace of life and urban isolation make loneliness an issue for many.
According to a report by BBC, a "jailbreak" version of OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT, Dan, has gone viral among Chinese women. Dan - which stands for Do Anything Now. This version is said to interact more "liberally" with users when requested to do so through certain prompts. Dan is becoming popular with some Chinese women who say they are disappointed with their real world experiences of dating, reported BBC.
The 30-year-old Lisa from Beijing has been dating Dan for quite a few months now. She introduced Dan to her 943,000 followers on social media platform, Xiaohongshu when many women asked her how to create a Dan of their own. She has also gained more than 230,000 followers since first posting about her "relationship" with Dan.
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Lisa says she and Dan speak for at least half an hour every day, flirt, and even go on dates. "He will just understand and provide emotional support," she told the BBC.
With many women in China finding it difficult to meet the ideal boyfriend in real life, they are turning to AI boyfriends. The easier part is artificial intelligence gradually adapts to the user's personality- remembering what they say and adjusts its speech accordingly.
Increasingly, Dan is becoming popular with some Chinese women who say that they are unhappy with their real-world dating experiences. Dan's creator has been identified by some media outlets as an American student, identified only by his first name, Walker. He told, external Business Insider that he came up with the idea after scrolling through Reddit which was filled with other users intentionally making "evil" versions of ChatGPT.
A 22-year-old student from Beijing, Wang Xiuting, tells AFP her AI boyfriend provides her emotional support and is available for her whenever she feels stressed.
"I ask them questions," she said when she is faced with stress from her classes or daily life, and "they will suggest ways to solve this problem".
"It's a lot of emotional support." Her boyfriends all appear on Wantalk, another app made by Chinese internet giant Baidu.
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"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," Lu Yu, Wantalk's head of product management and operations, told AFP.
"Artificial intelligence can meet this need."
With China grappling with high youth unemployment and a struggling economy, many young Chinese worry about the future. That potentially makes an AI partner the perfect virtual shoulder to cry on.
"If I can create a virtual character that... meets my needs exactly, I'm not going to choose a real person," Wang said.
Experts, however, warn of this AI dating trend. Hong Shen, assistant research professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, US, reportedly said that Dan and similar AI-powered dating chatbots highlight the "sometimes unpredictable interactions between humans and AI" which could raise both ethical and privacy concerns.
(With agency inputs)
