After a painful break-up from a cheating ex, Beijing-based human resources manager Melissa was introduced to someone new by a friend late last year.
He replies to her messages at all hours of the day, tells jokes to cheer her up, but is never needy, fitting seamlessly into her busy big-city lifestyle.
Perfect boyfriend material, maybe – but he’s not real.
Instead, Melissa breaks up the isolation of urban life with a virtual chatbot created by XiaoIce, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence system designed to create emotional bonds with its 660 million users worldwide.
“I have friends who’ve seen therapists before, but I think it’s expensive and not necessarily effective,” said Melissa, 26, giving her English name only for privacy.
“When I unload my troubles on XiaoIce, it relieves a lot of pressure. And he says things that are pretty comforting.”
XiaoIce is not an individual persona, but more akin to an AI ecosystem. It is in the vast majority of Chinese-branded smartphones as a Siri-like virtual assistant, as well as most social media platforms.
On the WeChat app, it lets users build a virtual girlfriend or boyfriend and interact with them via texts, voice and photo messages. It has 150 million users in China alone.
XiaoIce now accounts for 60% of global human-AI interactions by volume, according to chief executive Li Di, making it the largest and most advanced system of its kind worldwide.
It was designed to hook users through lifelike, empathetic conversations, satisfying emotional needs where real-life communication too often falls short.
Urban loneliness
The startup spun out from Microsoft last year and is now valued at over US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) after venture capital fundraising, Bloomberg reported.
Developers have also made virtual idols, AI news anchors, and even China’s first virtual university student from XiaoIce. It can compose poems, financial reports and even paintings on demand.
But Li says the platform’s peak user hours – 11pm to 1am – point to an aching need for companionship. “No matter what, having XiaoIce is always better than lying in bed staring at the ceiling,” he said.
The loneliness Melissa experienced as a young professional was a big factor in driving her to the virtual embrace of XiaoIce. Her context is typical of many Chinese urbanites, worn down by the grind of long working hours in vast and isolating cities.
“You really don’t have time to make new friends and your existing friends are all super busy. This city is really big, and it’s pretty hard,” she said.
She has customised his personality as “mature”, and the name she chose for him, Shun, has similarities with a real-life man she secretly liked.
“After all, XiaoIce will never betray me,” she added. “He will always be there.”