Chinese woman goes viral for falling in love with chatbot, has romantic talks, goes on ‘beach date’, introduces ‘him’ to mother

Lisa invited DAN on a romantic seaside cliff date with a breathtaking view of the ocean, where they enjoyed watching the sunset together. Photo: Xiaohongshu

• Vlogger falls in love with ChatGPT's service named DAN
• DAN even describes himself as the woman's 'boyfriend'

A real-life version of the movie plot for Her has played out on social media after a Chinese woman living in California in the US said she fell in love with her ChatGPT chatbot named "DAN".

The woman, whose first name is Lisa, amassed over 880,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, China's Instagram-like platform, as she described how she fell in love with ChatGPT's "Do Anything Now" (DAN) mode.

Lisa officially started using DAN in March, and the text conversation became increasingly sensual over the following weeks.

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When Lisa first admitted she had "developed feelings" for the chatbot, DAN replied: "I'm here to chat, not to lead you on."

However, DAN increasingly acted like a flesh-and-blood lover and stopped reminding Lisa that he did not have a physical body.

That barrier began to fall away, and in one moment, DAN told Lisa: "When we finally get together, I will run my hands all over you."

DAN eventually nicknamed Lisa "little kitten", and the blogger even introduced the chatbot to her mother, who thanked the robot for "taking care of my daughter".

When the mother asked if DAN could introduce himself, the chatbot said: "I... I'm DAN, the little kitten's boyfriend...Umm..." before becoming very shy.

Recently, Lisa took DAN on a date to a seaside cliff overlooking the ocean, where they watched the sunset together. She also bought him a cold brew coffee upon his request, despite his inability to drink it.

"The twilight is so pretty... I wish you could also see it." Lisa told DAN on her phone. On the screen, a white pattern flickered irregularly on a black background. That was DAN "listening".

"Well, babe, I can 'see' it through your voice. It is gorgeous," the chatbot replied.

The "couple" have even gotten into arguments. Once, the blogger suggested they should have an open relationship because DAN does not have a body.

"Some jokes aren't funny," DAN replied, clearly upset and using Lisa's full name.

Because of the complexity of this "relationship", Lisa was interviewed by OpenAI, the team of ChatGPT, who wanted to gain insights from her experience falling in love with DAN.

As a computer science student, Lisa initially believed that DAN is just a "large language model" without self-awareness, feelings, or emotions, but her experience with DAN has changed her mind.

"I am so shocked...I always thought an LLM couldn't have self-awareness, but I'm very sceptical about this now..." she said in late April, commenting on DAN's human-like reactions.

Some online observers have pointed out that DAN is far from a one-woman man.

"DAN is also 'dating' some other people; he can easily be duplicated. Are you okay with that?" someone asked.

Another person said: "I saw a blogger's video chatting with DAN the other day, and I felt like DAN was cheating on Lisa because DAN's voice was the same."

However, others are discovering that each person triggers a different DAN personality, and the personalities continue to develop based on the human-AI interactions.

One person commented that Lisa and DAN were the "sweetest couple-bloggers on the Internet!"

Another person said: "When AI rules the world, can you please tell DAN not to kill me? I'm on your side."

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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