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China bans AI “boyfriends” and “girlfriends” over addiction and birth rate concerns
(www.dexerto.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
198 points (97.1% liked)
Technology
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That's hard to say, at this point. A cheap, always available and completely sycophantic AI seems like it would be hard for a lot of people to resist.
What is clear, is that contraceptives existing is responsible for almost all of the decline since historical times.
Well, we can agree that these AI companions are like drugs. But mentally and physically healthy people statistically tend to resist consuming them. So if these virtual soul mates are so popular, then it clearly shows existence of problems in society.
So, government basically tries to cure the symptoms of a problem rather than curing the causes.