Why Are People In China Creating AI Clones Of Their Ex-Partners? Trend Triggers Privacy Debate
Why Are People In China Creating AI Clones Of Their Ex-Partners? Trend Triggers Privacy Debate
Publish Date: 2026-05-03 05:35:00
Source Domain: www.ndtv.com
Artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated every field. From the IT sector to media and entertainment, it is, as many experts claim, taking away or poised to take away jobs. While people are busy upskilling themselves or learning how to become more efficient using AI tools, they do not realise that it has also entered their love lives.
No, we are not talking about people using AI to make small talk or typing prompts while seeking relationship advice. In China, according to the South China Morning Post, artificial intelligence has kick-started a new trend in which people are making AI replicas of their ex-partners to heal themselves.
Depending on how you view the boom of AI, this piece of information might come across as revolutionary or make you question privacy while giving you the ick.
China’s Trend Of Creating AI Replicas Of Ex-Partners
This is a recent trend in China where people struggling with heartbreak create digital replicas of their ex-partners using AI. How? They feed chats, notes, social media content, and photos into an AI platform.
This phenomenon has originated from Colleague.skill, which was created by Shanghai-based AI engineer Zhou Tianyi. It was created to generate reusable AI skill packages from everyday documents, communications, and experiences. It aims to preserve and leverage employees’ knowledge.
As the platform gained popularity, people started using it for personal relationships. It began with employees feeding the platform data about meetings or their bosses, allowing them to understand the workplace better.
Amid this, the Ex‑partner.skill feature also gained traction among users. Despite technical difficulties, some paid between USD 3.7 (approximately Rs 351) and USD 6.6 (approximately Rs 626) for installation. According to the…
