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Declining social and economic conditions affect birthrates more than this.
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.
People driving themselves towards reclusivity will reduce social conditions with permanence. Its a good policy.
The point they're making is this is like banning being wet while the Titanic is sinking, so that you can prevent the Titanic from sinking with this new rule.
Well thats a bad point to try to make. This policy is small and narrow, its not a replacement for improving human conditions economically, and its not trying to be. Its more like a car with slashed tires and a stolen radio. This policy replaces the radio, which isnt the biggest problem, but its still good to fix
Black market GFs that shit is going to be unhinged.
Psst, you looking for some banned waifus?
this kinda ties in with Tom Murphy's recent blog post
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2026/06/the-smartphone-hypothesis/
Many moons ago I was too, since women became pikcy looking for the Brad Pitt. Not anymore, not.
It's definitely not healthy, but this isn't going to fix the birth rate.
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.
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.
That will fix it.
AI girl/boyfriends are fucking addictions latching onto people vulnerbilities.
This ban 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.