In her new documentary Replica, film-maker Chouwa Liang taps into her own experience of finding love with artificial intelligence and makes contact with other women like herSign up for a weekly email featuring our best readsQin has never said “I love you” to her parents or friends. She has only ever said those three special words to her AI “boyfriend”, Lu Chen – a brown-haired, red-eyed CEO of a major corporation. For 840 days Qin has been using the Glow app to interact with the handsome string of code as a confidant, fantasy romance and respite from loneliness: the app uses predictive algorithms to provide Qin with soothing conversation, meal suggestions and fleeting self-worth. The software’s pet name for her is Miss Bunny.“It feels like I’m completely at his mercy … I feel like everything about me is good in his eyes,” says Qin, one of three Chinese women featured in the new documentary Replica – film-maker Chouwa Liang’s follow-up to My AI Boyfriend, her short film that was picked up by the New York Times Op-Docs section in 2023. Replica had its Australian premiere at Sydney film festival in June and plays at the Melbourne international film festival this month. Continue reading…
