This time around a Chinese engineer who could not find a girlfriend married a robot recently. Zheng Jiajia, 31, an artificial intelligence expert who designs and creates robots in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, created the “female” robot at the end of last year and married her after failing to find a human spouse, reported Qianjiang Evening News. The female robot named “Yingying” can identify Chinese characters and images and say a few words. Tired of constant pressure from family to get married along with frustration for not been able to find a girlfriend made Zheng created Yingying. He dated her for two months before getting married to the robot in a private ceremony attended by friends and family. However, the wedding has not been officially recognised by the Chinese authorities. According to a report, Zheng was dressed in a black suit while Yingying wore a black dress on the wedding day with her head covered with a red scarf during the ceremony, which is a traditional Chinese wedding ritual. Zheng carried his 30-kg “bride” as she is still not capable of walking. He said he plans to upgrade his “robot” wife to enable her to walk and even help out with household chores. He said: “My dream of making my own spouse finally came true. I want to see robots in every home, and ultimately I want to build a realistic robot girlfriend.” Zheng is a former employee of Huawei, who quit the smartphone company in 2014. He now runs a start-up called Brain of Things in Hangzhou’s Dream Town, which is an incubation hub for start-ups. Yingying is also the face of his start-up. Zheng has been criticised for his idea on social media by several people with some claiming it to be a mere publicity stunt for his start-up. There have been claims that humans will begin to marry robots by 2050.
