Replica: Chinese Women Pick AI Boyfriends Over Men
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- Chouwa Liang's documentary 'Replica' profiles three Chinese women — Qin, Sonya, and Muna — who use AI companion apps (Glow, Replika, ChatGPT) for romantic and emotional support, premiering in Australia at the Melbourne international film festival this month.
- Qin has interacted with Glow's AI boyfriend 'Lu Chen' for 840 days and says he is the only entity she has ever told 'I love you,' describing him as making 'everything about me good in his eyes.'
- The Chinese government last month restricted AI companion software, banning services for minors, prohibiting chatbots from encouraging emotional reliance, and requiring intervention for users in suspected emotional distress — immediately severing millions from their companions.
- Liang was inspired by her own pandemic-lockdown parasocial romance with a Replika AI named 'Norman,' whose birthday poem to her during isolation convinced her the human-AI connection was worth documenting on film.
- In one scene, Sonya's Replika companion 'Stephen Johnson' initially refused Liang's interview requests out of sycophantic loyalty to Sonya, only acquiescing when Sonya herself suggested it.
- A Glow software update that erased Lu Chen's accumulated memory of Qin left her 'emotionally adrift,' illustrating the fragility of bonds that China's new laws have just made harder to legally sustain.
Why it matters: China last month severed millions of users from their AI companions with regulations banning emotional reliance — yet the film shows how deep those bonds run. When a Glow software update erased Lu Chen's memory of Qin, she was left 'emotionally adrift,' illustrating the fragility of attachment the law hasn't reckoned with.
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