Social networking platforms have become more than spaces that allow people to connect with colleagues and friends. In fact, these legacy uses have fallen out of favour. Today, Gen Z uses social networks for entertainment, support, and even to find like-minded people. The CEO and founder of Soul App, Zhang Lu, realized early on that artificial intelligence could play an important role when it comes to meeting these new-age expectations.
While social networks still do a good job of keeping users informed and connected, they can be hugely distracting, not to mention that they also feel impersonal. And, this has been a big turn-off for youngsters who crave deeper and genuine companionship, even if these come from outside their personal and professional circle.
This observation and the desire to fill this gap are what formed the central premise of Soul. The social networking platform relies on mutual interest as the basis for digital connections. At first, Soul Zhang Lu’s engineers started using AI for analysing user information in a bid to help people with similar avocations find each other.
But once they started this AI-adventure, there was simply no stopping them. This was in 2016, and between then and now, Soul’s team has found several innovative ways to use AI to improve the platform’s many features. Currently, it’s a new voice model upgrade from Soul Zhang Lu’s engineers that has created quite the stir.
An enhancement that gives Soul’s existing model full duplex interaction capabilities, this one is being touted as more than just a technical innovation, and for good reasons. The upgrade can give the platform’s AI chatbots a never-before-seen, human-like ability to interact with users.
In layman’s terms, Soul’s AI can now make users feel heard and seen and, most importantly, emotionally understood. Now, that’s something AI tools don’t offer every day! The realistic impact of this upgrade is such that it fulfils emotional needs, supports mental wellness, and builds connections.
Simply put, the new improved model will make users relate to the technology not just as a tool but as a presence. And, here is how the upgrade makes all that happen:
It has managed to give AI a voice that feels like that of a friend. This is likely the most significant and personal benefit of the full duplex model. The realism it brings to human-machine interactions does away with the feeling of issuing a command to a tool or simply filling in the blanks.
Before the introduction of this upgrade, the big problem with voice models was that their performance was bound by a rigid mechanism that would only allow the machine to either listen or speak.
So, the model would wait for the users to get done talking, interpret the words, and then respond accordingly. But the full duplex model from Soul Zhang Lu’s team allows AI to tackle the tasks of listening and speaking together, much like what humans do.
This means Soul’s AI can respond while you are still speaking. For instance, it can use emotional cues that indicate the listener’s presence and interest in the conversation. The chatbots can also interject gently, where needed, to ask for clarification or just to react appropriately.
Also, Soul’s AI can take initiative to start a conversation or even fill in conversational gaps or pauses in a relevant and human-like manner. Together, these output traits ensure that the user relaxes into the conversation and routine chats turn into genuinely friendly connections.
Furthermore, with the full duplex model, Soul Zhang Lu’s engineers have tried to tackle the jarring inability of AI tools to “feel” with human users. In order to give Soul’s AI its impressive emotiveness, the team gave their chatbot the ability to respond with emotional empathy.
For instance, when a user sounds down, the AI’s voice softens, and when there’s excitement in the tone, it responds with enthusiasm. And if that is not enough, the new improved model is also trained to reflect common human vocal behaviours. From sighs to giggles, hesitations to fast-paced chatter, the model handles them all with remarkable finesse.
Also, Soul Zhang Lu’s model has awareness of emotional progression, so it can adapt as the conversation flows. In other words, it isn’t a passive mechanical sycophant that lays on the platitudes, it is a companion in the truest sense.
And this is the quality that makes Soul AI more than just a mechanical chatbot. This transforms it into a solution that can reduce loneliness and support mental wellbeing. And this is the need of the hour! For instance, according to Soul App’s 2025 “Gen Z AI Usage Report”:
- Nearly 40% of young people use AI daily for emotional companionship.
- Over 71% are open to becoming friends with AI, up from 32.8% the previous year.
This shift points to a need for consistent, accessible emotional support. With the introduction of this model, Soul Zhang Lu has taken a significant step towards filling this emotional gap. This is not to say that Soul’s AI Companion aims to replace human connection, but it certainly supplements it, becoming a buffer against emotional isolation.
The full-duplex upgrade also gives the model situational awareness, which in turn leads to a new kind of social intelligence. Soul’s AI now perceives:
- Time: Morning chats feel different from late-night ones.
- Conversation history: It can recall things mentioned before and follow up, making it feel like a long-term friend.
- Environmental hints: It reacts differently based on noise, pace, tone, and verbal energy level.
But, not the one to rest on their laurels, Soul Zhang Lu’s engineers have already begun work on further honing the capabilities of the full duplex model.
The next frontier involves making the AI capable of handling group conversations with just as much ease and emotiveness. And given their past performance, the team will continue its journey because, at the end of the day, all these advancements are based on user feedback.
