A Silver-Haired Grandma Collides with an Intelligent System

A 78-year-old woman from Shandong and modern high-tech products

Her grandson buys her a smartphone. She wraps it in red cloth and places it beneath a Guanyin statue to “put a spell” on it. She mistakes the voice assistant for a “kidnapped daughter” and tries to rescue it. Unable to speak Mandarin, the old woman’s accent is impossible for the voice assistant to understand, until she manages to make the AI “go on strike” (that is, crash). From being “afraid the phone might become a spirit” to teaching the village’s older women how to use smartphones, learning to livestream with them, and becoming a famous internet personality herself, her transformation captures the warmth of rural elders embracing a changing world.

She then goes from clashing with the village’s intelligent robot, which serves elderly people living alone, to becoming its inseparable companion. Together, they help the robot teach villagers about technology-assisted farming, improve the village’s environment, pay bills online, exchange unused goods, and more. Later, they build a large smart eldercare center and develop many intelligent products. These products even enter the international market, boosting the province’s economy. The old woman and the robot bring China’s traditional culture and Confucius AI System to an international high-tech smart summit, bringing honor to their country.