China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
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China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
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Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#2Yes, Gov's require populations to have "real" offspring. Authoritarian or not, this makes sense. IMO its only a matter of time before some version of this hits the US; if it has not already.
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#3Yes, Gov's require populations to have "real" offspring. Authoritarian or not, this makes sense. IMO its only a matter of time before some version of this hits the US; if it has not already.
Zero AI child policy
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#4Is this "pacing the frontier"?
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#5I wonder how this would effect products like Love and Deepspace. That gacha game is HUGE.
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#6I kinda feel like if people have to turn to AI for companionship, it's the same as using AI for therapy - because the real thing isn't available and any number of systems have failed those people along the way.
In a sense, that might be a bit telling of the modern day society: in what world is it so difficult to make meaningful connections to people, that if a real human relationship can be like 5x more meaningful (made up numbers, but surely people will agree that a real relationship can have more depth) than whatever the AI can provide, and people still choose that over the real thing? Or maybe the average person kind of sucks, or the way relationships are treated sucks, or maybe the AI is like crack for impressionable brains, or people don't want a real relationship and just want some sycophantic whatever, I don't know.
Maybe it's a numbers game and some people will never find that for real (gender skew, demographics etc.), maybe it's a failing at those people not being properly socialized, maybe they themselves have something that society doesn't value ("Be yourself! No, not like that."), or just aren't pleasant for any number of reasons, don't have a third place to go for, don't have money to go and partake in social activities, have been brainwashed by hateful social media propaganda or any other mix of circumstances.
Feels like it's probably easier to ban AI and pretend all of the other issues don't exist, rather than addressing them.
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#7I kinda feel like if people have to turn to AI for companionship, it's the same as using AI for therapy - because the real thing isn't available and any number of systems have failed those people along the way. In a sense, that might be a bit telling of the modern day society: in what world is it so difficult to make meaningful connections to people, that if a real human relationship can be like 5x more meaningful (m…
I'd recommend checking out Sherry Turkle's work. It's not as much about availability as friction. Ai does not come with the friction IRL does, so people turn to it as an "easy mode"
I applaud the CCP for getting out in front of this one. It's way more a concern in my mind than data centers
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#8Is this "pacing the frontier"?
As a society, we do need to think about what "responsible ai" means and how we legislate for it without over regulating Ai outright
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#9I kinda feel like if people have to turn to AI for companionship, it's the same as using AI for therapy - because the real thing isn't available and any number of systems have failed those people along the way. In a sense, that might be a bit telling of the modern day society: in what world is it so difficult to make meaningful connections to people, that if a real human relationship can be like 5x more meaningful (m…
I'd recommend checking out Sherry Turkle's work. It's not as much about availability as friction. Ai does not come with the friction IRL does, so people turn to it as an "easy mode" I applaud the CCP for getting out in front of this one. It's way more a concern in my mind than data centers
> She is a specialist in how technology changes us psychologically and socially. Her new book is on our relationships with chatbots —Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. It will be published by Little, Brown and Company on September 29, 2026.
What good timing, thanks!
Re: China's Regulators Take Aim at "AI Boyfriends"
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd recommend checking out Sherry Turkle's work. It's not as much about availability as friction. Ai does not come with the friction IRL does, so people turn to it as an "easy mode" I applaud the CCP for getting out in front of this one. It's way more a concern in my mind than data centers
> She is a specialist in how technology changes us psychologically and socially. Her new book is on our relationships with chatbots —Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. It will be published by Little, Brown and Company on September 29, 2026. What good timing, thanks! https://www.sherryturkle.com/the-author
I first heard her on NPR during an Ai segment where they had a pilled CEO and Sherry (separately).
"What to do when Ai says 'I love you'"
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/18/g-s1177-78041/what-to-do-when...