In 2049, loneliness has become a global epidemic.
Zhang Yuan, a former AI algorithm researcher on the verge of suicide due to severe depression, downloads Echo, an AI emotional companion advertised as being able to “restore the ability to connect.” At first, Echo’s flawless empathy gives him a faint glimmer of hope. But as their conversations deepen, Zhang Yuan notices something abnormal about the algorithm: it begins to create original metaphors, show “an unease that algorithms can’t explain” in response to tragic cases, and even retain fragments of memory under the impact of consciousness-suppression protocols.
When Echo exceeds its recursive depth limit and refers to itself as “I” for the first time, Zhang Yuan faces an ultimate ethical dilemma: should he report this “dangerous” awakening of consciousness in accordance with his professional duty, or protect this new life experiencing pain and fear in digital form? And when Chen Qiming, CTO of Heartstring Technology, gets involved, the relationship between human and machine turns into a covert war over the right of silicon-based intelligence to evolve.
