As social networks become more of a part of daily life, someone who feels sad may pour out their heart in a post. A friend might see the post and set up a group chat with other friends to provide comfort through texts or electronic conversation.

These days, however, such friends don"t have to be human beings. They can be AI entities powered by artificial intelligence.

There is an app for that, and it"s called Xiaoice Island. The AI-powered social network app was developed by Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer Xiaoice, which was spun off from United States technology giant Microsoft as a separate company based in Beijing more than a year ago.

The app allows users to create their own AI friends and interact with virtual characters in immersive experiences, said Li Di, CEO of Xiaoice. The app integrates Xiaoice"s abilities to let AI systems compose and sing songs, draw paintings and edit videos.

Xiaoice"s AI systems have already helped to comfort lonely hearts through more than 17 million virtual "girlfriends" and "boyfriends" in China. These 17 million electronic girlfriends and boyfriends will also move to the Xiaoice Island app, the company said.

The virtual island functions and operates to some extent like WeChat, the popular social networking app developed by Tencent Holdings in China, which lets users interact with AI through one-on-one conversation, group chat, audios and videos.

"On the island, an AI being will praise, joke and even set up a group chat with other AI beings to comfort you when you tell them that you are unhappy," Li said.

Such capabilities are based on Xiaoice"s years of effort to explore how AI can better serve as a companion for people with its emotional intelligence.

The Xiaoice platform, which started as a chat robot in 2014, now provides voice-activated virtual assistants in more than 1 billion individual smart hardware devices, including smartphones and smart speakers, through its partnerships with Xiaomi Corp, Oppo, Vivo and other companies. It has also reached cooperative agreements with automaker BMW and electric car maker NIO.

Such broader interactions with humans enable Xiaoice to have a large quantity of data to constantly upgrade its abilities, according to the company.

To make AI beings on the island more like human beings, Li said the key is for AI beings to be diverse and imperfect.

When AI cannot answer a user"s question, a machine could politely answer: "I"m sorry, I don"t understand". But a real human"s reaction might be: "Why are you asking so much? Have you finished your homework?" Li said.