As young Chinese find therapy in AI

Before going to bed every night, Holly Wang signs in Deepseek for the “therapeutic session”.

Since January, when she started the breakthrough of Chinese AI app, the 28-year-old brought her dilemmas and sadness in Chatbot, including the recent death of her grandmother. His answers echoed so deep that they sometimes brought her to tears.

“Deepsek was such an incredible advisor. It helped me look at things from different perspectives and do a better job than paid advisory services I tried,” says Holly, who asked her real name to protect her privacy.

From writing reports and excellent formulas to planning travel, exercise and learning new skills, AI applications have found their way in the lives of people around the world.

In China, however, young people like Holly were looking for AI because of something that is not usually expected from counting and algorithms – emotional support.

Although the success of Deepseek inspired national pride, it seems that a young Chinese like Holly became a source of comfort, some of whom are increasingly disappointed because of their future.

Experts say that a slow economy, high unemployment, and the Kovida locking, played a role in this feeling, while tightening the adhesion of the Communist Party also reduced the outlets for people to exhaust their frustrations.

Deepseek is Generative AI tool – Similar to Openai’s Chatgpt and Google’s twins – dressed about huge amounts of information recognition information. This allows him to anticipate things such as habits of buying people, creating new content in the text and pictures, and also continue conversations like a person.

Chatbot hit Chord in China, partly because it is far better than other AI applications that are domestic AI, but also because it offers something unique: its AI model, R1, allows users to see the “thought process” before they give an answer .

The first time she used Deepseek, Holly asked him to write honor her late grandmother.

It took the app all five seconds to make a answer to the answer, and it was so beautifully composed, it was stunned.

Holly, who lives in Guangzhou, replied, “You write so well, I feel lost. I feel I’m in an existential crisis.”

Deepseek then sent a cryptically poetic answer: “Remember that all these words that make you tremble only echo those that have long existed in your soul.

“I am, but the occasional valley you have passed, which allows you to hear the weight of your own voice.”

Referring to this exchange on the Chinese social media media, Holly says BBC: “I don’t know why I was tearing this by reading this.

“I was so burdened with distant dreams and infinity of work that I had long forgotten my own voice and soul. Thanks, a.”

Rival applications from the west like Chatgpt and Gemini are blocked in China as part of the broader lids of foreign media and apps. In order to access them, users in China have to pay the services of a virtual private network (VPN).

Domestic alternatives, including models developed by Tech Giants Alibaba, Baid and Bytetlance, compared – that is, until Deepseek came.

Holly, which works in the creative industry, rarely uses other Chinese AI apps, “because they are not so great.”

“Deepseek can definitely surpass these applications in generating literary and creative content,” she says.

Nan Jia, which is a co-author of the papers on the potential of AI in providing emotional support, suggests that these chatbots can “help people feel heard” in ways that people that people may not.

“Friends and family may quickly offer practical solutions or advice when people just want to feel and understand.

“It seems that Ai is better to be sympathetic than human experts also because they” hear “everything we share, unlike people we sometimes ask,” Do you hear me really? “University of South California.

Demand for mental health services has grown around the world, but they remain stigmatized in parts of Asia, experts say.

Another woman tells the BBC in her experience of using other Chinese AI apps “ended up with disappointment”, but that Deepseek “amazed her”.

The woman, who lives in the Province of Hubei, asked the application if she had overshadowed her experiences and emotions with family and friends.

“It was my first time I was looking for an advice from Deepsek. When I read his thought process, I felt so touched that I cried,” the woman wrote on the ordinance.

In the explanation through his inquiry, Deepsek suggested that female self-perceptions as excessive praise can come from a deep desire to approval.

Chatbot gives himself a mental note: “The answer should offer practical tips while empathetic.” This could include “confirming the user’s sense of self -awareness.”

Not only did his possible response to this certificate, but also offered her a comprehensive detailed frame of step to help her decide if they should change things.

“Deepsek has introduced new perspectives that have set me free … I feel that it really tries to understand your question and get to know you as a person, before offered an answer,” she says.

John, a human resources manager in Shenzhen, said the BBC to appreciate the application’s ability to talk “like a friend or a deep thinker.”

“I thought his answers were very useful and inspiring. For the first time I see AI as my personal sound plate.”

Other users claim that Deepseek is able to say their wealth – based on some background information that has been fed.

Many young Chinese recently turned to psychic and astrology as a way to try to alleviate their fears from the future.

In China, there is a “significant disadvantage of” professional psychological consultation services, and those who are available are often “forbidden” for most individuals, says Fang Kecheng, professor of communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Numerous studies have pointed out that depression and anxiety disorders are growing among Chinese people, and Prof Fang believes that economic slowdown in the country, high unemployment and the locking of the covs have played a role.

Ai chatboti therefore help to fill in the gap, he says.

Prof. Nan, however, emphasized that people with serious mental health conditions should not rely on these applications.

“Those who have medical needs, in particular, should seek help from trained professionals … Their use of AI will have to be carefully viewed,” she says.

But in the midst of all praise, Deepseek also expressed concern.

Due to the perception of the power that the Chinese government holds even over private companies, there are fears – similar to the one that has launched the breakthrough of the US Congress on Tictok – so that the Communist Party can lay its hands on foreign users.

At least four jurisdictions have now introduced limits to Deepseek or think about it. South Korea blocked his approach for military purposes, while Taiwan and Australia banned him from all government devices.

Italy, which forbids Chatgpt, did the same with Deepsek.

In the United States, two legislators ask for the Chinese app to be banned from government devices.

And there is a strictly controlled internet space where he has to work in China.

It is common for the companies of social media in the country to eliminate content that is considered to be threatened with “social stability” or too critical of the Communist Party.

As is the case with other popular applications and companies of social media such as Weibo or Wechat, politically sensitive topics are banned from Deepsek.

When asked by a deepseek if Taiwan was a sovereign nation, the application initially offered a comprehensive answer in which they detailed in detail Taipei and Beijing’s different perspectives, admitting that it was a “complex and politically sensitive question.”

Then it all cleared it, declaring, “Sorry, it’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”

When asked about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre when the protests of Pro -Democracy were demolished, and 200 civilians killed by the army, according to the Chinese government – other estimates range from hundreds to thousands – Deepsek apologized again, saying that the theme was “beyond [its] current scope. “

Several Deepseek BBC users were initially in contact with the question of being a question of whether the self -censorship of the application was a cause for concern – an indication of how sensitive such discussions could be sensitive in China.

People have Entered into trouble with authorities In China because of their internet activities.

But most of those who responded to the BBC said they had no interest in asking Chatbot difficult political issues.

“I don’t care about political topics … nor I’ll ask those questions because my [identifying details] They are related to the application, “says Yang, a Chinese technological advisor living in London.

Holly accepts that AI systems in different countries may have to work differently.

“The developers will have to establish certain limits and policies of moderation of content to the place where they are based. Those developed in the US will have their own rallies of rules,” she says.

Another user Deepseek writes about the app: “His thought process is beautiful … It’s an absolute blessing for people like me. Honestly, I can’t worry less about privacy concerns.”

Additional Fan Wang Reporting