Add a generation that grew up socialising via screens, then spent formative years locked down during a pandemic, and the appeal is easy to understand. In China, the timing makes sense, too. A tough job market, macroeconomic uncertainty, and rat-race societal pressures have combined with a top-down push to integrate AI into everything to make artificial companionship feel almost inevitable.

But why women? Uneven gender roles around the world already mean more emotional labour, housework, motherhood expectations, and patriarchal pressures in marriage. As the director of a documentary about Chinese women in AI relationships told Wired earlier this year, part of the appeal is that “men don’t have patience” the way chatbots do. China’s bachelors could perhaps start by honing their listening skills.

WATERED-DOWN RULES

For companies, the big question is whether restricting a known engagement driver will stifle growth in a booming industry, as other Beijing crackdowns have. Yet the rules taking effect July 15 are far more watered-down than the draft unveiled last year, suggesting regulators have closely listened to industry. 

Jeremy Daum of the Yale Law School Paul Tsai China Center offers a useful translation; while the rules still contain some open questions, they also include carveouts, including for customer-service bots and other uses.

Daum also notes how closely the legislation appears to mirror a California law in places. That suggests that global policymakers can and should find common ground around AI risks. It also weakens Silicon Valley’s favourite argument that regulation will hold it back and let China “win”.