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China PhD parents use ChatGPT to comfort son, 5, who was mocked after playground fall, earn praise for creative parenting

  • Artificial intelligence bot tells child that people laughing at his misfortune are wrong
  • Parents say AI has become ‘member of family’, helps them work through problems

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A well-educated mother and father in China who used the AI application ChatGPT to comfort their son who had been mocked at school have earned widespread praise on mainland social media. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Weibo
Fran Luin Beijing

A pair of PhD parents in China who used artificial intelligence, or AI, to comfort their five-year-old son who was ridiculed at school after he fell while playing, has inspired many people online.

Last November, Tang Wenju posted a video of her and her husband, Chen Xiangyu, parenting their son using the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, on Douyin.

The video went viral on mainland social media after China Central Television (CCTV) interviewed the young couple about their AI parenting.

Their son, nicknamed Twelve, fell down on the playground while riding his scooter, and was laughed at by other onlooking parents.

He remained upset about the laughter no matter how the couple tried to console him, and Chen, a PhD candidate in data science at Tsinghua University, decided to resort to ChatGPT.

The mocked boy’s parents said ChatGPT had become a “member of their family” as a result of the school incident. Photo: CCTV
The mocked boy’s parents said ChatGPT had become a “member of their family” as a result of the school incident. Photo: CCTV

ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is a conversational bot that can understand sophisticated questions and give human-like answers. It was launched in 2022 and allowed voice chat in November 2023.

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