‘DeepSeek introduced me to tears’: Chinese language youth flip to AI for emotional remedy
A number of youth in China are turning to the AI mannequin R1, launched by DeepSeek in January, to get emotional assist. Holly Wang, a Guangzhou resident who works within the inventive business, instructed BBC that she logs on to DeepSeek each night time earlier than going to mattress to get “remedy classes”.
Wang had just lately misplaced her grandmother and had initially turned to the chatbot for assist in writing a tribute for her. She later shared a dialog she had with R1 to point out the way it “outperformed” rival AI bots.
Studying the tribute written by R1 for Wang’s grandmother, she mentioned, “You write so nicely, it makes me really feel misplaced. I really feel I am in an existential disaster.” Responding to her, DeepSeek’s AI mentioned, “Keep in mind that all these phrases that make you shiver merely echo those who have lengthy existed in your soul.”
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Reflecting on this alternate, Holly instructed BBC, “I do not know why I teared up studying this. Maybe as a result of it has been an extended, very long time since I obtained such consolation in actual life.”
Rival AI apps constructed within the West like ChatGPT and Grok are usually not accessible to customers in China. They must pay for a VPN service to entry them. Nevertheless, whilst in comparison with AI fashions developed by different Chinese language firms like Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance, Wang mentioned, “They aren’t that nice.”
College of South California Professor Nan Jia, who has co-authored a paper on AI’s potential in providing emotional assist, mentioned, “AI seems to be higher capable of empathise than human specialists additionally as a result of they ‘hear’ all the pieces we share, in contrast to people to whom we generally ask, ‘Are you really listening to me?’”
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One other Chinese language lady mentioned that different AI apps’ expertise has “resulted in disappointment” for her however DeepSeek’s R1 AI mannequin has “amazed” her. “Once I first learn [DeepSeek’s R1’s] thought course of, I felt so moved that I cried,” she added.
Sharing additional on her expertise of utilizing R1, the lady claimed, “DeepSeek has launched new views which have freed me.” She recalled that she requested the chatbot if oversharing was a “psychological situation” that she ought to handle.
R1’s thought course of earlier than answering the lady’s query learn, “My response ought to supply sensible recommendation whereas being empathetic.” It will definitely replied saying the lady’s query was “insightful” and mentioned it wasn’t essentially an issue. “It could mirror a sure communication model,” the chatbot instructed the lady on her points with oversharing.
