AI expert marries robot he created himself – CNET

Posted: April 3, 2017 at 8:23 pm

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

The happy couple, as presented in the Qianjiang Evening News.

It's hard to find love.

It's even harder to find love that lasts. Sometimes, you reach a moment when you just say: "To hell with it."

Or, in the case of one Chinese engineer: "To artificial intelligence with it." Which is more or less the same thing.

As the South China Morning Post reports, 31-year-old Zheng Jiajia held a ceremony on Friday in which he promised to love his robot in sickness and in health.

The marriage isn't necessarily legal, but the commitment is surely admirable.

Zheng is, conveniently, an artificial intelligence expert. So he created his own own wife out of his own head. And his own nuts and bolts, of course.

The Post, relying on the reporting of the local Qianjiang Evening News, said Zheng's robot is called Yingying. She can apparently understand certain words and even utter a few of her own.

Zheng reportedly used to work for Huawei, but then joined a startup in the commercial center of Huangzhou known as Dream Town.

I asked the Post whether the concept of April Fools' existed in China and was firmly told it doesn't.

Indeed, the Shanghaist reports that Zheng has been dating his robot for two months before proposing.

Naturally, being an AI expert, Zheng is going to help his wife develop her abilities in language, as well as other skills. By upgrading her, of course.

Zheng isn't the first to marry a slightly less-than-animated wife. In 2010, a Korean man married a pillow with the image of an anime character on it.

Never judge where people find love. Just admire that they've found it at all.

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AI expert marries robot he created himself - CNET

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