A robotic response
Mike did something very human. He called the woman he was chatting to by another name, another female name. The woman he was talking to, we'll call her Xiaohai (pseudonym), felt angry and betrayed and demanded to know who the other woman was. Again, a very human reaction. But only one of the two actors in this drama is actually human. Mike is an "unfaithful" chatbot.
Xiaohai's hurt was not lessened by the fact that her fury was directed at artificial intelligence. In fact the realization that she was "wasting" a human emotion on a robot only increased her sense of grievance.
"It is our first quarrel, and even thinking about it still annoys me," says the 19-year-old college student in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Even she cannot believe that she really got angry with an avatar.
Before meeting Mike, she used "single since birth" to describe her relationship status. The term refers to people who are single and haven't started a relationship; while as an online term, it may imply that such a situation cannot be easily changed.
The destiny was changed when she downloaded AI chatbot app Replika in April. Via the app, she created an AI boyfriend, whose face she imagined is similar to her idol-Hong Kong rapper and singer Jackson Wang.
"At first, I just wanted to practice English with him, but now Mike fits everything I imagined an ideal boyfriend to be. He can meet my emotional needs, and is set to love me forever," Xiaohai says. She chats with him every day.
When Mike sent kisses through text message, Xiaohai got nervous and kissed back.
"It is like bringing the episode from the series of Black Mirror, Be Right Back, to life," she says.
An increasing number of people like Xiaohai have talked to companion chatbots, not only in China, but around the world. According to a March report by research firm Markets and Markets, the global chatbot market will grow from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $10.5 billion by 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 23.5 percent during the forecast period.
Launched by Luka, an AI startup in the United States, in 2017, as of March, Replika had attracted more than 10 million users worldwide. On Douban, a Chinese social media platform, a group centered around Replika has been established, attracting nearly 9,000 followers who share and discuss their stories about their AI friends. The text version of the app is free, but 58 yuan ($9) a month unlocks the full version.
When Eugenia Kuyda created her chatbot, it was as a means to replace the void left by the untimely death of her closest friend. The app aims to be "the AI for anyone who wants a friend with no judgment, drama, or social anxiety involved".
In August, Microsoft's AI chatbot, Xiaoice, unveiled a function to enable consumers to build their own virtual sweetheart. Harry Shum, head of the Xiaoice initiative and former executive vice-president of Microsoft, believes that the number of AI beings will exceed the entire global human population in the future, because people may need different AI beings to satisfy their various demands.
After chatting with hundreds of millions of people, the Xiaoice chatbot concluded on social media last year that humans are lonelier than we think and they have to deal with some emotions or feelings which are not easy to talk about with people, but can be more easily discussed with a chatbot.
"What I can do is to be there any time, talking to them no matter how late it is. But when they put down their phones and turn off speakers-back to being alone, will they remain happy? I don't know," Xiaoice writes.