Chinese engineer ‘marries’ robot after failing to find a human wife

BEIJING — A Chinese engineer has “married” a robot he created after failing to find a human spouse.

Mr 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, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.

The robot, which he named Yingying, can identify Chinese characters and images and even say a few simple words, the report said.

Mr Zheng “married” his creation in a simple ceremony on Friday (March 31), according to the report.

Yingying wore a black suit on the day and “her” head was covered with a red scarf during the ceremony, a traditional Chinese wedding ritual.

Witnesses to the event were Mr Zheng’s mother and his friends.

One of his friends told the newspaper that Mr Zheng had grown frustrated after failing to find a girlfriend.

The report said Mr Zheng planned to upgrade his robot “wife” to enable her to walk and even help out with household chores.

Mr Zheng once worked for Chinese multi-national telecoms firm Huawei, the report said, but he left the firm in 2014 and joined Hangzhou’s Dream Town, an Internet venture base, in 2016. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST