In a private ceremony held in Hangzhou, capital of China’s Zhejiang province last weekend, 31-year old artificial intelligence engineer Zheng Jiajia was married surrounded by his mother, family and friends. The bride ‘Yingying’ wore a traditional red cloth head covering but everything else about her was non-traditional, especially since she is a robot built by Zheng himself. Zheng Jiajia is a former Huawei employee who left the smartphone company to focus work on an artificial intelligence startup based locally in Hangzhou’s Dream Town commercial centre. He built Yingying late last year but due to pressure from his mother and family to find a wife and the subsequent failure to find a suitable one led him to decide to just marry Yingying instead.
Zheng Jiajia went about it like a gentleman however, and reported ‘dated’ Yingying for two months before proposing. Although, Yingying cannot converse in the traditional human way with a large set of vocabulary, she can identify Chinese characters, images and even say a few simple words. It is safe to say one of those words is ‘yes’, although it makes you wonder if she is programmed to ever say ‘no’. The artificial intelligence engineer Zheng said that he plans to implement some upgrades to his wife Yingying, including giving her the ability to walk so she may help out with household chores. Who ever said romance is dead?
“… and do you, Yingying, take Zheng Jiajia to be your lawful wedded husband, til death do you part?”
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Chunk friend?!