1 - Klara under China's AI Sun

In 2021, the Nobel-prize-winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro published the well-known book Klara and the Sun. The dystopian science fiction story narrates a story of the solar-power Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities. Klara is presented as a “cute” woman with short black hair. In the same year in China, on several of the country’s social media platforms, Ayayi, the first meta-human virtual influencer, made her appearance. Essentially a hyper-realistic digitized person Ayayi gains attention from internet users and Western brands due to her interaction with them (user-generated content) and her appearance, which is closer to humans than existing virtual idols. More specifically, Ayayi has short blond hair, and her skin texture can be adapted to light. With the rapid expansion of digital technology and artificial intelligence in China, computer-generated people and robots with AI technology have become catalysts for the country’s cultural industry. The question is, what makes artificial intelligence human? Moreover, how is AI gendered and racialized in China? The empirical material for this paper draws upon results from online ethnography and online interviews with foreign and Chinese entrepreneurs working on AI start-ups, the author’s participation in virtual events on AI in China, and media analysis on China's social media platforms. This study provides an ethnographic account of this phenomenon by showing how AI and robots are structured with whiteness and often with gendered performances. I argue that this racialization of artificial tech systems reflects and illuminates the particularities of whiteness and femininity in China.