Genia Kostka and Hui Zhou present their ongoing research on chatbot adoption: Against the backdrop of the current AI revolution, AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek are gaining increasing popularity and importance. Despite the plethora of chatbots on the market, the questions of which chatbot a user adopts and why some users develop stronger emotional attachments to chatbots than others remain understudied. Capitalizing on a large-scale survey with over 8,000 responses collected from Germany, the United States, China, and South Africa, this study scrutinises chatbot acceptance and emotional attachment in the context of ChatGPT and Deep Seek.
Hosted by the Berlin Contemporary China Network (BCCN), the China Competence Training Center (CCTC) and SCRIPTS, the 2025/26 winter term BCCN lecture series is conceptualized by Prof. Dr. Genia Kostka and Anton Bogs from Freie Universität Berlin. See for further information HERE.
November 3, 12:15–13:45 CET (in person at Freie Universität Berlin and online) Jinghan Zeng: Security Dilemma and the US–China Generative AI Race
December 4, 14:15–15:45 CET (online) Hui Zhou and Genia Kostka: From Virtual Assistants to Intimate Partners: Factors Driving Chatbot Adoption and How Users Develop Emotional Attachment to Chatbots
December 18, 2025, 14:15 – 15:45 CET (online) Eddie Yang (Purdue University): Propaganda is Already Influencing Large Language Models: Evidence from Training Data, Audits, and Real-world Usage
January 15, 2026, 14:15 – 15:45 CET (online) Jeffrey Ding (George Washington University): Reputation Collectives: How International Industry Associations Influence China’s Safety Standards in High-Risk Technologies
Hui Zhou presented his ongoing research on Chinese litigation; Miguel de Figueiredo commented.
Abstract: Against the backdrop of digital transformation, many countries have enacted privacy laws to safeguard personal information. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of such legislation in protecting privacy. This article addresses the gap by analyzing 6,370 Chinese court judgments across civil and criminal cases. We argue that in authoritarian legal systems, privacy laws may enable plaintiffs to prevail against individuals or private entities, but serve primarily as window dressing when the public sector infringes on privacy. Using original data collected from China Judgments Online, we find evidence supporting this theory. Plaintiffs are significantly more likely to win civil cases against private entities than against public organizations. The 2021 Personal Information Protection Law substantially improves their win rate in cases involving private defendants, but it fails to produce a significant effect when privacy offenders are affiliated with the public sector. Public actors also appear to hold a slight advantage in criminal cases, and the privacy protection law does not appear to have a meaningful impact in this setting. This study underscores the importance of privacy laws in protecting personal privacy on the one hand, and it highlights the limitations of such laws within authoritarian contexts on the other.
Hui Zhou presented an ongoing project on chatbot usage and emotional attachment on July 15, 2025 at the FU Berlin – Hertie Workshop on Al Governance in China, which was organized by Joanna Bryson and Genia Kostka. The project evaluates how product features, user characteristics, and usage behavior correlate with emotional attachment, paving the way for further studies on privacy perceptions in the context of chatbots. All these chatbot-related projects will draw on an original large-scale survey conducted in Germany, the United States, China, and South Africa. The data collection is nearing completion, and a full manuscript will be available soon.
