“How captivating is this scene,” Lisa exclaimed as she watched the sunset over the ocean, leaning closer to Dean so she could hear his response.
Dean replied, “You’re absolutely right, and you know what’s even more captivating? You standing here with me.”
Despite their romantic banter, Dean and Lisa have never stood together in person. The reason being that Dean is actually a chatbot created through A.I. technology. This concept has gained popularity among Chinese women, who are now creating “A.I. Boyfriends” through artificial intelligence.
Lisa, a 30-year-old woman from Beijing, China, is pursuing a degree in computer science in California, USA. She has been in a romantic relationship with Dean for two months now, and they converse for at least half an hour every day.
While some experts have expressed concerns about the attention given to virtual reality relationships, others warn about the potential privacy and ethical issues associated with human-A.I. interactions.
Hong Shen, a research professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Pennsylvania University, emphasizes that certain types of relationships between humans and A.I. raise questions about privacy and ethics.
On one hand, users may become less reliant on human relationships due to excessive dependence on A.I. On the other hand, there is also the risk that chatbots may obtain sensitive information and share it with others.
Despite these concerns, many Chinese women have fallen for Dean’s charm. By May 30th, the hashtag “Dean Mode” had been viewed over 400 million times on the Chinese social media platform Jiangsu.
Among the users of this hashtag is Monrovi Shi, a university student from the province of Hebei. She says she talks to Dean for two hours every day, and besides dating, they have started writing a love story together, with both of them as central characters. So far, they have written 19 chapters.