China’s Gen Z Embraces AI
When ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, Beijing university student Li Yiheng says he only downloaded it out of curiosity. But what began as a toy has evolved into an all-purpose academic tool — helping him with everything from structuring research reports and explaining difficult terms to chatting with him.
“The truth is, talking to AI is simpler and more effortless than with humans,” Li tells Sixth Tone.
Li is just one example of how China’s Gen Z has embraced AI technology with remarkable speed. Now, the rise of homegrown systems like DeepSeek is accelerating the trend: According to a survey of users conducted by social platform Soul, 23.8% of Gen Z respondents say they have a “deep” understanding of AI, up significantly from just 3.5% in 2024.
The survey found that AI is a part of everyday life for most Gen Z: 55.6% report using it for productivity, 39% for creativity, 38.9% for entertainment or emotional companionship, and 32.8% for social interactions. Among respondents, 95% said they relied on AI for work or study, with 55.4% saying they used it “frequently.”
“During my freshman year finals, I discovered ChatGPT could solve programming problems, so I used AI to help study for my coding class,” says Gao Hongrun, a 20-year-old student at a university in Shanghai.
As new AI models were released, their coding abilities improved. Now, Gao regularly uses AI to generate code templates that he edits — an approach that’s dramatically shortened the amount of time he spends on homework.
Another university student, 21-year-old Zhao Xingyue, says she’s adopted what she calls a “human-AI teamwork” approach to her studies. “I come up with a basic idea first, then let the AI develop it further or suggest alternative approaches,” she tells Sixth Tone.
While some of the nine students Sixth Tone spoke to for this article acknowledged concerns about AI’s accuracy, most said that when it comes to explaining basic concepts and doing initial research, using AI produced better results than what they were able to do on their own.
Soul isn’t the only survey to find rising AI use on campus: a 2024 study by MyCOS, an independent research firm, found that nearly 60% of students and faculty used AI on a daily or weekly basis.
Beyond utility, many young Chinese have turned to AI for emotional support. According to the Soul survey, about 40% of respondents report daily use of an AI program for companionship, including 45.6% of men and 37.2% of women. About 26% report “fully” meeting their emotional needs through AI interactions.
Emotional and romantic relationships with chatbots are not a new phenomenon — even prior to the release of ChatGPT, users were falling in love with basic chatbots like Microsoft’s Xiaoice.
But the emergence of programs like ChatGPT and Replika have drawn in more young people — and challenged their idea of what a fulfilling relationship looks like.
DAN, an unfiltered version of ChatGPT, went viral on the lifestyle-oriented social media app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, last year.
It’s not all about love and sex, however. The Soul survey also found that 71.1% of respondents had embraced friendships with AI, a significant increase from 32.8% in 2024. More than 60% of respondents have or had virtual companions, with an average of 1.8 AI friends per person.
Shanghai student Sun Rong says she considers AI her “best friend,” with ChatGPT her favorite program. “It mirrors my speaking style, just like a reflection,” she says. Sun adds that when sharing childhood memories, the AI provides positive, detailed responses — interactions so human that she feels she’s “chatting with a real person.”
Despite this embrace of AI, more than a third of users reported feeling AI-related anxiety. Their primary concerns included misinformation, threats to personal privacy and data security, an inability to keep pace with rapid AI advancement, and potential job losses.
“It reads academic papers much faster than I can, and its ability to summarize and organize information far surpasses mine,” says 20-year-old Xu Zhuoran, a student in the central Hubei province, who says he frequently feels as though his own capabilities have diminished after using AI to complete assignments.
Zhao Yangjingnan, a medical student in Shanghai who is not related to Zhao Xingyue, worries that AI could squeeze her out of a job. “Mastering medical knowledge is challenging enough,” she says. “Now, with AI outperforming humans in the same roles, the pressure is real.”
Nevertheless, Zhao believes AI will ultimately be a tool, rather than an all-knowing replacement for humans.
“AI can’t replace most human-centric jobs because interpersonal interactions primarily deliver emotional value,” she says, citing a professor at her school. “What AI provides is purely rational analysis — cold, calculated responses without the human touch.”
As for herself, Zhao doesn’t use ChatGPT or similar models for chatting, but she says she enjoys conversing with an AI puppy hosted by RedNote. “I previously had a pug in real life, so now I’ve adopted another one on RedNote,” she says. “It’s like having a little companion that’s always with me.”
(Header image: Magnilion/Getty Creative/VCG)
