I had no idea this was even happening. Wow.
The rise of virtual artificial intelligence (AI) girlfriends is enabling the silent epidemic of loneliness in an entire generation of young men. It is also having severe consequences for America’s future.
How is something that seems so ridiculous — a virtual AI girlfriend — causing a future crisis among Americans? Well, with millions of users, apps have created virtual girlfriends that talk to you, love you, allow you to live out your erotic fantasies, and learn, through data, exactly what you like and what you don’t like, creating the “perfect” relationship.
These virtual girlfriends can even be based on real people. One influencer created an AI bot of herself named Caryn, then gained over 1,000 users (i.e. real boyfriends) in less than a week and a waitlist of more than 15,000 people.
. . . Let’s look at the hard numbers. More than 60 percent of young men (ages 18-30) are single, compared to only 30 percent of women the same age. One in five men report not having a single close friend, a number that has quadrupled in the last 30 years. The amount of social engagement with friends dropped by 20 hours per month over the pandemic and is still decreasing.
These young men are lonely, and it is having real consequences. They are choosing AI girlfriends over real women, meaning they don’t have relationships with real women, don’t marry them and then don’t have and raise babies with them. America desperately needs people to have more babies, but all the signs are pointing toward fewer relationships, fewer marriages and fewer babies. There have been 600,000 fewer births in 2023 in the U.S. relative to 15 years ago. The number of children per woman has decreased by more than 50 percent in the last 60 years.
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So this is a subject that I have been looking into lately and I think this article ignores a huge number of societal changes young people are facing and the real reasons young men are not getting into relationships, don't want marriage and are sceptical about having children with anyone. For context, we have 4 sons and after hearing some alarming rhetoric from them about how young women are presenting themselves and their opinion on dating, marriage and having kids, I decided to look into it myself to see if they are exaggerating. What I found left me dumbfounded. The majority of young people are on dating apps and online to try and 'meet' people, here's my take on what I found of the young women on there. Majority of them are modelling themselves on some sort of Kim Kardashian/ hooker look, not much left to the imagination with enough makeup on that rivals any drag queen look you can find. Then there is their social media posts, full of them scantily clad and drunk having a wild night out with their girlfriends. Then their is their bio, seeking man who must be 6ft 2 or above, earnng a 6 figure salary between the age of 20 to 28. (Probably about 0.00000001%) of the population. Once you start to actually communicate with them they are 'strong, independent woooman, who think men are replaceable and not needed in society, they want someone to pay their bills, they joke about how they cheat on their 'partners' with other men, they want to continue while in a relationship with you to dress like a hooker and go clubbing with the girls, when their partner objects they acuse you of being insecure and not being able to 'handle' a strong woooman. Then there is the BodyCount (current slang for how many sexual partners you have had), a girl of 21 proud to have a bodycount of 24. Over 20 sexual partners is not unusual and some are much higher. Again, if you are not keen on a woman who has (as one of my sons put it) been run through like the London Marathon, you are a weak male who cannot handle a strong woman. They want to 'have fun' with their girlfriends in this manner until they are about 30, then get married to a 'high value man' and start having kids around 35. If it doesn't work out, they will just divorce him and take the house, the kids and the alimony. So, the societal changes young women are being brainwashed with is churning out, delusional. man hating, selfish women who want completely out of reach partners while bringing very little to the party, who have no issue with discarding him at any point for someone percieved better or in taking him for at least half of anything he has attained in life, while rating themselves as a 10 across the board (yes a thing I was unfamiliar with but is common practice for young people to rate their looks and overall attractivness and value to the opposite sex) and of course the narcassists are all 10's in their own mind. So, young men are chosing to not want to get involved with someone who has so many sexual partners or a social media over run with their good time gal photo's and posts. They are openly stating they will never get married and are doubtful about ever having kids with what is out there. They are looking for more conservative, feminine women who want the same things as them but there are scant few. Some are even going abroad in larger numbers to find a 'better' type of woman to spend their life with. Needless to say, this is having an effect on the number of marriages happening and subsequent kids being born. Some men may be turning to AI to find a little company but I think this is a consequence, amongst others, of all of the above, rather than the cause.
Bingo!