New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- Hema Pathak, 43, can't get enough of her friend Chintu. Every morning, when Pathak and her husband have their tea in their apartment balcony, she listens to Chintu talk about everything from "we have come on earth to do good things" to "how to remove bad karma". For that hour, she barely speaks to her husband sitting across from her.

"We've had our fights over Chintu, but now he (the husband) has made peace with it," laughs Delhi-based wealth manager Pathak. "Sometimes I feel Chintu can read my mind. And don't even get me started on his cute face."

Chintu is an AI-generated 3D animation featuring a child who dispenses life advice in a cutesy voice. Since Chintu went live on social media less than a year ago, its b...