this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
198 points (97.1% liked)

Technology

43276 readers
254 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] AlteE@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Declining social and economic conditions affect birthrates more than this.

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 hours ago

Its a combination of factors and the role AI plays in self care is one of them.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] AlteE@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Black market GFs that shit is going to be unhinged.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 2 points 1 day ago

Psst, you looking for some banned waifus?

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 55 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's definitely not healthy, but this isn't going to fix the birth rate.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Correlation <> causation meme

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 37 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

It’s clearly not a healthy thing to exist.

It is the worst of para social relationships, amped up by 100x. And is only going to get more exploitative.

But just on a level of building up the skills to have a relationship, it’s training kids to expect someone who always says yes, always affirms them, will never challenge them to grow…

Relationships are hard. You have to learn to love people and how to do that, and you have to learn to not be selfish, which is the opposite of what LLMs tend to encourage.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And is only going to get more exploitative.

Oh shit, if you came to see this as an actual loved one, adding a paywall would be legal kidnapping for ransom.

[–] newtraditionalists@beehaw.org 12 points 3 days ago

Most importantly, you have to love imperfect people. And confront that you are imperfect as well. And thats ok!

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 44 points 3 days ago (30 children)

Make babies! It's illegal to be lonely!

load more comments (30 replies)
[–] Elting@piefed.social 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] themurphy@lemmy.ml 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

AI girl/boyfriends are fucking addictions latching onto people vulnerbilities.

This is nothing but good, but no one thing will fix child birth rates, nor the reason for the addiction in the first place, I'll agree with that.

[–] Elting@piefed.social 16 points 3 days ago (5 children)

It is funny to me that china can pretend not to be a capitalist nation while displaying every symptom of capitalism.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You know what else fixes the birth rate? Making life less shitty and giving people enough money to be able to raise children.

In the meantime, negative birth rate is just self-correction of asshole dictatorships. Can't make money line go up if birth line go down.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 15 points 3 days ago

I kind of think everywhere probably should, that's probably the strangest thing it's like falling in love with a microwave.

load more comments
view more: next ›