If you thought you had a lot of cyber friends, consider Xiaobu, who has 300,000 names in his address book.

Xiaobu is a 2-month old AI (Artificial Intelligence) "robot" created by a computer science postgraduate, who goes by the name Bruce, from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province .

Since its appearance on MSN Messenger, a popular chatting software platform, thousands of people have added his e-mail address (robot9zi@hotmail.com) to their contact list.

"I hope that Xiaobu can work as a personal assistant in the future, who can answer all inquiries from his friends," said Xiaobu's creator.

The cyberspace "robot" can search lyrics, bus routes, train schedules, postal codes and 11 other kinds of information as Bruce has linked him with a number of useful databases.

If you want information about taking a train from Shanghai to Beijing, Xiaobu can help. Just tell him the following -- but be sure to say it in Chinese: "Train: Shanghai, Beijing."

Xiaobu will respond with eight itinerary options.

Say "Weather Shanghai," and you'll get a two-day forecast. Some users complain that Xiaobu provides limited information, but Bruce said adding more databases would solve the problem.

There are challenges, though.

"To make Xiaobu understand every message he gets -- in other words, to improve his artificial intelligence -- is most complicated," Bruce noted.

"I hope one day we will be able to interact with him as if he were a real person."

Ask Xiaobu whether there are good restaurants in Shanghai, and he'll be at a loss.

Compared with impersonal search engines like Yahoo and Google, Xiaobu is undoubtedly more friendly and fun.

Users can rely on him as a decent assistant when one's human friends aren't around.

"When I talk to the real people on contact list, I can quite often predict their answers, " said Michael Zhang, a frequent MSN user, "But when I talk to Xiaobu, an unsophisticated talker, he always brings me a lot of unexpected happiness."

"I have never expected that a "robot" will complain to me about how stressful his life is as there are too many friends on the list. That's real fun."

Bruce said that he never dreamed that his creation would be such a success.

Xiaobu caught on quickly, and Bruce has been approached by investors eager to put the "robot" to commercial use.

The "robot" creator, however, turned down all proposals.

"I want the public to benefit from the awesome technology," he said. "As long as Xiaobu is working online, his service will be free."

Bruce is developing more AI functions to enhance Xiaobu's capabilities.

He said the new and improved version of the online helper will appear soon, but he did not provide an exact date.

Some are skeptical of Xiaobu's chatting functions, although most are optimistic about his search engine features.

"Many users will lose interest after their initial fun with the robot," one Netizen said.

"Besides, the best thing about the Internet is interacting with real people. Chatting to a computer can get tedious," the Netizen added.

(eastday.com February 27, 2004)