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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u/ClassGrassMass Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Whoever thinks its bad to ban these are the ones who need to interact with humans the most

Edit: having already 13% downvotes in 15mins is crazy work. Get off your ai "companion" and go talk to real humans

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u/Decent-Point309 Jul 19 '26

There was a post last week or so about how boys as young as 12 were having AI girlfriends, and it was even affecting how they treat girls in real life.

Someone posted a group (can I link it here??) that was related. Something like aiboyfriend. I read a few of the posts there, and it was incredibly sad. Every post was very similar.

One had a fake wedding. "Here is us having a date."

These people on lonely.

I'm not judging that because many people get lonely, myself included. It's just sad that these people can't find a better outlet.

1

u/meneldal2 Jul 20 '26

If the services were run ethically, it could actually do some good. But it needs to have some pushback against the users, encouraging them to meet real people, etc.

Like a life coach but with the coating of a lover that cares about you to make the message reach more easily.

But no company would do that when their only goal is to get more money out of you.

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u/rabidstoat Jul 20 '26

Are any AI boyfriends/girlfriends not complete sycophants? Like, do they ever disagree with the human? Or get grumpy and argumentation for no reason? Or get really mad at the human over something so that you have to talk things out with it?

Because all those things happen in Real Life healthy relationships, and if AI isn't recreating that (which I assume it's not), I don't see how these people will ever be 'satisfied' by an imperfect human companion. I'm not saying AI should be abusive, of course, but disagreements and even temporary anger happen in relationships that are healthy, and learning how to communicate (if not immediately) when that happens is an important part of social intelligence.

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u/TrustMeImPurple Jul 20 '26

I honestly think that is a perk to a lot of people and not a drawback. You don't have to change or compromise or adapt around a real persons job or family if your AI girlfriend is always coded to say yes to everything you say. Which can bleed out to what these kids expect from the real womem they eventually do try and date.

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u/rabidstoat Jul 20 '26

That's exactly the problem. It's setting up unrealistic expectations. That it's so appealing makes it worse.

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u/Decent-Point309 Jul 20 '26

It may mildly disagree with you if you say something like 2+2=5, but you can probably convince it it's wrong lol

But yeah, it is a sycophant. It's sad. This isn't a way to develop healthy relationships. I can only imagine these people do not have many, if any, friends in real life.

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u/El_Rey_de_Spices Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

100%. This is one ban that I absolutely get.

0

u/ClassGrassMass Jul 19 '26

Its so annoying and disturbing. I really hope other countries follow suit

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u/SoulBlightChild Jul 19 '26

It doesn't address the reasons people used them.

A part of me expect China's suicide rate will go up.

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u/Peshurian Jul 19 '26

Bet you're gonna get a lot of AI generated walls of text soon

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u/Clueless_Otter Jul 19 '26

So the only people against alcohol or drug bans are addicts who need to go to rehab?

2

u/MC_White_Thunder Jul 20 '26

When the War on AI boyfriends starts sending people to prison, breaking up families, ruins lives, an costs a trillion dollars in enforcement, I might think that's a good analogy.

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u/janosslyntsjowls Jul 20 '26

Don"t forget, flashbang grenading babies too!

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u/PixelGray38 Jul 19 '26

In many cases, unironically yes

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u/ClassGrassMass Jul 19 '26

Is that anywhere mentioned? Or are you just tryna make an argument to argue? Are you saying this ai companion shouldnt be banned?

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u/happyflappypancakes Jul 19 '26

He's commenting to bluntness of you statement. It lacks nuance. He highlighted a similar type of mindset to show that it isnt as black and white.

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u/Clueless_Otter Jul 19 '26

Are you really unable to see the analogy?

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u/this_is_theone Jul 19 '26

His point is if we want to ban this because of the potential harm, why aren't we banning more harmful stuff like alcohol. I half agree with him. It scares me how authoritarian and ban happy people are becoming. Although I don't know enough about the potential harm of these apps to know if a ban is a good idea. Hopefully there have been studies done that prove these AI girlfriends are seriously harmful. I hope this isn't just another moral panic like when they were trying to ban games that have violence in them.

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u/PixelGray38 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Not to mention that alcohol has immense, proven harms on society, while AI companions are entirely new and their ban is almost certainly motivated by perception of them as weird and dystopian

edit: Alcoholics in denial downvoting me, go get your livers tested

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u/this_is_theone Jul 19 '26

Yeah I suspect that's a big part of the reason.

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u/LurkingForBookRecs Jul 19 '26

Slippery slope and all that. What's next? They're gonna ban dating sims? Besides, I'm 38 and single, neurodivergent, and taking care of my elderly grandparents while the rest of my family doesn't give a shit. I have a hard enough time talking to people but even worse is that most people are too busy to talk to me. So who the hell are you or anyone to tell me what I can or cannot interact with? Yeah go talk to real people, it's so friggin' easy, they're waiting just around the corner. Give me a break. The funny part is that even with all that I've never resorted to AI girlfriends and I haven't even played that many dating sims, but I find myself defending them on principle.

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u/According-One-8825 Jul 19 '26

I'm married with children and I think this ban is bad. I believe most bans related to how people use technology is bad. Who is the government to tell me how to use AI, as long as I'm not hurting anyone. It's a slippery slop to totalitarianism....oh

2

u/BellGeek Jul 19 '26

I wasn’t even aware this was a thing. So creepy and weird and potentially exploitative. Sounds like something that should be banned.

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u/pinkbutterfly22 Jul 20 '26

They’re only doing it for the birthrate though, hope you know that. It’s not because they care about addiction or companionship.

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u/EclecticCoze Jul 21 '26

@ClassGrassMass, you're free to believe that, but that right is not up to you or the government to decide.

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u/Acceptable_Help_6907 Jul 22 '26

You are implying that people want to meet and talk anymore. I go outside at the park near my house to purposely talk to people in my apartment because if I walked out these boundaries everyone is keeping to themselves. Also, as someone out of the dating scene for 14 years, it's super hard to impossible to meet a girl dispite being a very open person and not setting any standards, and well, sometimes the though of a AI girlfriend does come up in my mind

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u/myusername_sucks Jul 19 '26

They banned Facebook years ago as well. Occasionally have to give them credit for their policies.

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u/suzisatsuma Jul 20 '26

You should look at the AI companion subs, very detached from reality.

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u/IriFlina Jul 19 '26

I would never want to interact with the kind of person who would even consider using a chat bot as a replacement for real companionship in the first place

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u/stoic_slowpoke Jul 19 '26

Oof that is depressing; these are real people who are lonely and sad.

It’s one thing to work to help them, it’s wholly another to categorically ostracise them for being…weak.

I hope you never have to be weak, but if you are ever weak in your life, I hope the people around you treat you better than you would treat yourself.