In China, a controversial new trend is reshaping how young people process heartbreak: using artificial intelligence to recreate digital versions of their ex-partners. What began as an open-source project called Colleague.skill—designed to distill coworkers’ skills and communication styles into AI agents—has evolved into a phenomenon where users upload chat logs, social media posts, and photos to generate AI replicas of former romantic partners. These “digital exes” can mimic speech patterns, emotional nuances, and even inside jokes, offering a hyper-personalized form of closure—or, critics argue, a dangerous form of emotional dependency. The trend, first reported by the South China Morning Post, has sparked global debates about the intersection of AI, mental health, and privacy. For a generation raised on digital intimacy, the allure is clear: What if you could talk to your ex one last time, without the messiness of real-life reconciliation? How It Works: From Colleague.skill to Ex-par...