Source: Sixth Tone RSS
When Chinese creators of an AI girl group announced a member's pregnancy to buy themselves a break, they exposed a friction point: fan communities now demand the same emotional labor maintenance as human celebrities—except with no actual human needing rest. The backlash suggests audiences are rejecting the pretense that parasocial relationships with synthetic performers can operate on human terms, even when the mechanics of AI creation are transparent. Fans are recognizing they're being asked to perform emotional investment while their idols' creators treat the project as a job requiring downtime.