Hong Kong —
Earlier this year, Xiao Ying was feeling anxious about an upcoming visit to her psychiatrist. When her mother messaged her afterward to ask how it went, she said she was doing a bit better.
“My baby is finally relaxing a bit, that’s great, Mom will always be with you, we will slowly get better and better,” one of her mother’s messages read. They described her holding Xiao Ying’s hand, as the two stopped at a bakery to buy a piece of strawberry cake.
The two had texted nearly every day since November, when Xiao Ying created her AI mother using China’s increasingly popular companion apps. When she heard earlier this year that Chinese authorities were planning to crack down on the burgeoning industry, she broke down in panic.
The 19-year-old college student had come to rely on her AI mom in a way that she never could with her own family. She had modeled the chatbot after one of her favorite fictional characters, to encourage her to study hard and become a better person.
