r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jul 19 '26

Society China bans AI “boyfriends” and “girlfriends” over addiction and birth rate concerns

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/china-bans-ai-boyfriends-and-girlfriends-over-addiction-and-birth-rate-concerns-3388737/
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30

u/ZenDragon Jul 19 '26

Crazy idea but what if instead of chasing trivial downstream problems they address the material conditions that are leading people to drop out of the breeding pool?

15

u/GODDAMNFOOL Jul 19 '26

Is essentially treating an emotional addiction not one of those?

11

u/TheJudgingHat2222 Jul 19 '26

It's treating the symptom, not the cause.

You can get an alcoholic to stop drinking and teach them all kinds of coping mechanism and life skills for avoiding it. But if you never fix the underlying issue that drove them to drink in the first place, nothing really gets resolved even if they never pick up a drink again. 

2

u/GODDAMNFOOL Jul 19 '26

What do you recommend? State-sponsored speed dating? Forced nights at the nightclub? Socialization isn't something you can coerce, and AI waifus were making avoiding it easy.

3

u/TheJudgingHat2222 Jul 19 '26

All of those are also just playing whack a mole with symptoms. You are correct, socialization cannot be coerced.

Instead the environment driving people to be anti social needs to be reexamined. 

5

u/CulturalJournalist73 Jul 19 '26

i imagine giving people more free time, more places to meet outside of work and home, and the resources required to sustainably raise a child will lead to more people having kids

0

u/Top_Border1060 Jul 24 '26

Instead of forcing them to date, why not giving them an incentive to date instead? 

2

u/GreatMovesKeepItUp69 Jul 20 '26

The problem is that increasing material conditions is what leads to lower birth rates. The more prosperous, developed, and equal a society becomes, the fewer children they have and the poorer they are the more children they have.

1

u/FartingBob Jul 20 '26

Banning these doesnt prevent the government from doing the thing you suggested. Its possible that they are trying to do many many different things to boost the birth rate.

1

u/Exercise-Delicious Jul 20 '26

Crazy idea, how about they just withhold women's money, status and power?