Are People Ready for a Relationship With AI? It's Already Happening

While social or companion robots may sound like something one would only see in a science-fiction movie, conversational AI bots are becoming the norm in Asia, and are beginning to be commonplace even in the United States. Microsoft's Xiaoice, for instance, has 660 million users in China, and recently had a valuation of $1 billion dollars. The Xiaoice chatbot is included in 450 million smart devices, and according to the Xiaoice company, which split off from Microsoft in 2020, 60% of all worldwide AI-human interactions are conducted via Xiaoice technology. Many enterprise businesses use AI chatbots for customer service and product inquiries, but for millions of users today, the AI chatbot is seen as a romantic partner or companion. Likened to the AI-character Samantha in the 2013 movie Her, Xiaoice is not the only AI entity in the conversational AI space.