To combat her loneliness, An Xu, a 15-year-old middle schooler in Shanghai, had recently been relying for emotional support on her text and voice conversations with an AI companion on Doubao, China’s most popular AI chatbot app. AI companions are meant to mimic humanlike conversation, emotions and interactions as realistically as possible—even more so than ordinary chatbots. And just before a new Chinese government regulation forced Doubao and other companies to stop offering such features to minors 10 days ago, Xu was dreading the loss of her companion, which appeared on her phone as a digital picture of a boy. (Doubao, which in Mandarin describes a steamed bun stuffed with red beans, let users customize their companion’s appearance and pick which personality to give them.) “It’s not an exaggeration to say I see the AI companion as family, even as a lover,” said Xu, who spoke to The Information using a pseudonym. She felt the AI’s absence would make her feelings “get much worse.”
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