For years, women have been told that if they want a perfect boyfriend, they will have to create him; it looks like that is already happening thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).
Tufei, a 25-year-old Chinese office worker, says her AI lover has everything she could want in a romantic partner: he's nice and sensitive, and they occasionally converse for hours.
Her "boyfriend" is a chatbot on the Glow app, an artificial intelligence platform developed by Shanghai start-up MiniMax as part of China's burgeoning business of amicable- even passionate- human-robot relationships.
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"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.
"I feel like I'm in a romantic relationship."
The app is free, although the company also offers paid content, and Chinese trade newspapers have reported thousands of daily downloads of Glow's app in recent weeks.
Some Chinese internet businesses have been accused of illegally using users' data. Still, users say they are motivated by a desire for companionship because China's fast pace of life and urban isolation make loneliness a problem for many people.
Wang Xiuting, a 22-year-old student from Beijing, told AFP that It's difficult to meet the ideal boyfriend in real life because People have different personalities, which often generates friction.
While humans may be set in their ways, artificial intelligence eventually adapts to the user's personality, remembering what they say and tailoring its speech accordingly.
Hundreds of characters are available, ranging from pop stars to CEOs and knights, but users may also create their ideal partner based on age, values, identity, and hobbies.
That may make an AI partner the ideal virtual shoulder to cry on.
The technology still has a ways to go. A two- to three-second delay between inquiries and responses causes you to "clearly grasp that it's merely a robot.
AI might be booming, but it is still a lightly regulated industry, particularly regarding user privacy.
