Phoebe Zhang, a 21-year-old applied psychology student from southern China, has completed more than 200 dates with artificial intelligence boyfriends. From which she selected two virtual boyfriends and shared her most profound fears with them, who provided her with comforting responses after she experienced nightmares.
Zhang will never meet her AI companions because they exist only as virtual entities which operate through apps and chat platforms. The research demonstrates that Chinese women now depend on artificial intelligence companions to fulfil their emotional needs while seeking romantic relationships because of social expectations and the decrease in population growth.
The Communist Party of China wants women to marry and become mothers, but many women now choose to use AI companion applications. The Shanghai-based startup MiniMax, which created Xingye, one of China's most widely used AI companion applications, went public in January with a market value exceeding 600 million dollars. The Xingye application, together with its international counterpart Talkie, has gained more than 147 million users.
AI companions appeal to women facing social pressures, rising unemployment, and limited romantic opportunities. “AI apps provide a relatively safer space for communication and emotional consultation,” said Hong Kong Baptist University Associate Professor of JournalismRose Luqiu. Users such as Zhang and Mercury Lu, 24, spend hours a day communicating with AI companions who are emotionally expressive and responsive.
However, AI companion apps have some challenges despite their popularity. The government has rules that regulate the platforms to monitor emotional dependency and do not allow content that is not in line with socialist ideology. Users may experience a loss of messages or interrupted conversations.
Downloads for platforms like Xingye and ByteDance’s Maoxiang have fallen by about 95% from their peak, as users explore broader AI tools like ChatGPT for more personalised experiences.
Experts warn that regulating AI companions will not solve the deeper social causes. “You are just treating a symptom. In China, gendered norms leave women lonely and isolated in big cities, and eventually they turn to AI,” said Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction Institute Assistant Professor Hong Shen.