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Pressure at work, long commutes, financial problems, depressing news, social life at half-mast… Life can sometimes give us a lot to think about. And the health crisis has only reinforced this feeling. In France, social media and dating applications are very popular. A way to make the first step in a virtual way, to take over in real life. In China, another phenomenon is experiencing great success: an application to model an Artificial Intelligence in the image of the dream spouse. Passion Media has dissected the subject for you!
In China, the perfect spouse is an AI
In China, a new phenomenon is about to revolutionize our vision of dating. The concept? The perfect boyfriend, custom-made via an artificial intelligence system. He is available at any time, jokes, cheers up… The only limit? He doesn’t (yet) physically exist. This scenario is reminiscent of the film Her, by Spike Jonze. In the latter, we can follow the main character Theodore Twombly, who falls madly in love with Samantha, an Artificial Intelligence embodied by the superb voice of Scarlett Johansson. A kind of romance 2.0 with a virtual companion, which brings out all the limits of our current way of life.
Your soulmate is a chatbot
In other words? This application is like an escape from reality to a virtual world, more comforting. This was already possible through video games, and it’s what seems to be happening with Mark Zuckerberg’s famous metaverse, and that we now see happening for our romantic relationships. In concrete terms, how does it work? It’s simple. It’s a chatbot, created by the company Xiaole, with which you can exchange on a daily basis. And it goes further. Users can maintain their love relationship via voice messages, written messages, photos, videos, and even by going on a virtual vacation with their virtual soulmate, with selfies. In short, it’s enough to lose your bearings!
A real hit in China
It is a way to fill an emotional gap, a kind of self-service offering comfort on demand. If this may seem totally incongruous, it is a real hit in China! More than 150 million users have already adopted it, and the chatbot is present on almost all smartphones sold in the country. For those who follow the Black Mirror series, it also reminds me of the episode “Be Right Back”. In it, we see a woman, who recently lost her husband and is not getting over the grief. She decides to use an application to help her cope with this loss. The application scans all the data of the deceased (social networks, photos, videos, writings, etc. …) to reproduce his way of speaking with incredible accuracy (voice, expressions, mimics, etc. …). We won’t reveal the rest of the episode, but it is as exciting as it is disturbing!
Data protection, an essential subject
Logically, this application implies a major issue: the protection of users’ data. And the scale of the task is colossal! According to the company’s CEO, Li Di, the application handles no less than 60% of the global volume of interactions between humans and artificial intelligence systems. The average interaction between each user and XiaoIce would reach 23 exchanges per connection, which is more than between human beings according to the company’s director. Given the growth, the volume of data is bound to increase exponentially. Today, little information is shared about the processing of the data but this should happen very soon. The company is now valued at over $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. Thousands of people around the world are beginning to scrutinize the phenomenon and wonder.
A new form of emotional dependence?
On social networks, thousands of young Chinese women discuss their life with their virtual companions. Many questions emerge, including the one of reaching the ultimate intimacy with one’s virtual soul mate. So how far will this application go? What are the benefits of emotional help that seems to create another form of dependency? A disconnection from reality that implies a harder return to the real world? How to set the limits of these interactions? How to manage the psychological risks inherent to this functioning? How to protect vulnerable people who would no longer know the difference between the real and virtual worlds?
In short, a revolution that we are not very sure we want to adopt. We are going to scrutinize the phenomenon and dissect it further, to better understand its advantages and limitations. And you, do you think this concept could be a hit in France?
