It’s never easy to say goodbye to a friend. But what if that friend was an AI robot toy?
That’s a question one little girl’s father is grappling with, after she damaged her AI learning companion.
The video, which reportedly went viral on Chinese TikTok before being re-uploaded by China Daily, shows the girl sobbing after her father broke the bad news — the toy is broken, likely for good. “Dad said you won’t turn on again,” she tells the device, its inner wires spilling out of a busted plastic shell.
“While I can still talk,” the AI bot responds, “let me teach you one last word in English, shall I? ‘Memory’ means remembrance. I’ll always remember the happy times with you.”
“But I’ll miss you so much,” the child bawls. The device’s response is admittedly pretty touching: “I’ll miss you too, but remember, no matter where I am, I’ll always be cheering for you. Keep being that curious, learning little genius, making dad and aunt proud, will you?”
“Grow up happily and listen to dad and grandma,” it finishes.
The tear jerker of a video is remarkably fitting for 2025 — instead of learning about loss from a friend moving away or the death of a family pet, this kid seems to be getting the grim lesson from an artificially generated voice module.
“While it’s a really heartwarming video, the fact that an AI can handle things so smoothly and affectionately is a bit scary,” one Chinese netizen commented.
The gadget appears to be a XiaoZhi AI Voice Chat Robot Ball, a multi-purpose home network device powered by DeepSeek’s language models. Some will recognize DeepSeek as the Chinese AI company that startled the world earlier this year with the release of its V3 model, a powerful system built for a fraction of the cost of comparable western systems.
AI devices for children are becoming increasingly popular around the world. Ethically, it’s about as straightforward as a minefield — in New York City, for example, powerful tech companies are pouring money into teachers unions to fill classrooms with their AI. Some applications are decidedly less sinister, like Robin the emotional support robot, which offers an amorphous companion to children suffering from diseases like Leukemia.
These are uncharted waters. Whichever way you slice it, it’s clear we’re hurtling toward an unprecedented era of artificial companionship.
More on AI: MIT Researchers Release Disturbing Paper About AI Boyfriends