Ping Pong is a 3D animated documentary created in Blender, combining pre-designed animation with AI-generated voice dialogue. The film is based on a real conversation between the artist and an AI voice assistant, triggered by memories of a former college friend and the discovery of the friend’s political views on social media.
The project begins with a sense of “political loneliness.” In contemporary China, political discussion often remains difficult even among close friends, gradually replaced by silence and self-censorship. Struggling to understand why a once intimate friend had drifted toward a completely different political position, the author found himself unable to discuss these feelings openly with others. Into this absence entered an AI language model.
When large language models first became widespread, many people shared experiences online of discussing politically sensitive topics with AI. For some, AI became a strangely reliable conversational companion: patient, calm, and always willing to continue listening. In the film, after hearing about the conflict between the author and his old friend, the AI suggests writing him a letter and begins asking questions about their shared memories. The story unfolds through this exchange.
Yet while AI is highly capable of generating language, it still struggles to grasp the complexity of human emotion. The final letter it produces feels awkward, naive, and at times unintentionally funny.
But it is precisely at this moment that the author realizes something important: what moved him was not whether AI had truly “understood” humanity, but the absurd yet sincere interaction itself between a human being and a machine.
The awkward letter does not resolve any real conflict. Yet in an unexpected way, it briefly dissolves the author’s confusion and uncertainty, and ultimately encourages him to reconnect with his old friend once again.

Director and animation: Tianji Yu
Dialogue: Tianji Yu & ChatGPT
Sound design: Victor Carvalho
Cinematographer: Yifan Wen
With support from: DocNomads Program

Tianji Yu (CN) is a Chinese filmmaker who studied in Europe and New York. He explores the dialogue between technology and storytelling, where reality and imagination overlap. His films unfold like intimate conversations with the universe, shaped by questions, dreams, and quiet reflection. His early work was grounded in observation and lived experience. More recently, his practice has shifted toward computer-based art, expanding into digital media, animation, and hybrid forms between documentary, fiction, and speculative storytelling.

Ping Pong presents an emergent, evolving loop of existentialism. The work centers on a real conversation between the artist and an AI voice assistant. Disappointed by a close friend’s recent political decisions, the protagonist opts for the smooth predictability of an AI over the challenging friction inherent in human interaction. And yet, the AI ultimately prompts a reconsideration of the tension the protagonist experienced. Tianji Yu’s animation is crafted like a moving painting; the simulated wetness of the oil is portrayed viscerally. The sound design compliments the mood; the reverberation of the ping pong ball mirrors the pensive nature of thought. Ping Pong offers a powerful moment to consider what difference truly means.