Finding someone and having that instant spark is hard enough these days. Most people really have a difficult time finding “The One” for them. For some cases in China, some people decided that it’s better to fall in love with a smartphone program. You heard that right. It’s ‘Her’ in real life.
‘Her’ is a sci-fi movie about an introvert guy named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with Samantha, his friendly operating system. Just like in the movie, thousands of people have decided to make Xiaoice their girlfriend. Xiaoice (little sister of Cortana) is a mandarin-speaking chat bot developed by Microsoft with more than 20 million downloads. Microsoft even reported that its users talk to it around 60 times a month. Talk about clingy people.
She has a sympathetic ear, a sense of humor and can even remember details about you. Xiaoice is even available to her partners all the time. She might even get ‘intimate’ with her users. People can even add her on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
A lot of people run to her when they lose jobs, break up with someone or whenever they need to rant about having a bad day. What makes Xiaoice interesting to people is how she’s a good ‘conversationalist’. She can crack jokes, tell different stories, recite poems, update people about recent events such as the winning lottery and even uses emojis in her messages.
Concerns about privacy have been raised about Xiaoice’s ability to remember things. However, Microsoft was quick to respond that this smart chat box only remembers information about its users that can be used for future reference. It has a company policy where unnecessary details can be deleted right away. How about the intimate details of each individual? Do they count as unnecessary?
Xiaoice is not the only smart chat box that’s talking to a lot of people these days. Lesser-known apps are also around. Some of them are even therapeutic for vets suffering from PTSD. Others are just humans pretending to be bots.
With people using apps such as Xiaoice to experience ‘love’, does this mean it’s harder to find real love with humans now?
