Reconfiguring Intimacy With AI Companions

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has given rise to AI companions that increasingly occupy intimate and emotionally significant roles in users' everyday lives. China, as a major market for the use of AI companionship applications, provides the ideal environment for studying the evolving types of intimacy that exist between people and AI. Ongoing debates have raised questions concerning trust, authenticity, and the impacts of relationships with artificial agents. How do users come to trust AI companions? How do they reconcile awareness of artificiality with experiences of emotional authenticity? And how do such relationships reshape expectations of real-life intimacy? To address these questions, this study adopts a qualitative approach, employing interviews with Chinese Gen Z users. The research helps to gain a deeper understanding of AI-mediated intimate relationships and provides insights for the ethical design and management of AI companion products.