r/technology • u/WorldTravelerBoss • Jul 15 '26

Artificial Intelligence The terrifying rise of schoolboys making AI girlfriends. Boys as young as 12 are now in romantic ‘relationships’ with chatbots, and it’s affecting how they treat girls in the real world.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/25/schoolboys-ai-girlfriends/
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2.2k

u/MogarRage Jul 15 '26

As the younger generation would say "chat im cooked"

383

u/Grey_0ne Jul 15 '26

I have the suspicion this is a bit alarmist... Considering they say "it takes less than five minutes for a young boy to create his dream girlfriend on one of these platforms", but only lists platforms that charge a subscription to do anything that chatGPT wouldn't.

Seriously though; I don't rightly know what people expected when society destroyed third spaces for teens to hang out in, handed their 2 year old a tablet and decided to surrender 90 percent of social media to the manosphere.

125

u/kikogamerJ2 Jul 15 '26

They didn't expect anything cause they arent even thinking. Way to many people have zero responsibility and capacity to be parents.

6

u/whitedolphinn Jul 15 '26

Yeah it's this. They weren't actually thinking or using their brains at the time(s) when they did those things. That's why there's so much confusion from them, I suppose, when they see the result(s) of their behavior(s).

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u/PeaceSoft Jul 15 '26

Even worse, they don't read what they're responding to and just sort of start ranting to themselves about whatever it reminded them of!!! christ

41

u/PreferenceGeneral475 Jul 15 '26

Blame it on whatever you want but when you give adolescent males a judgement free zone to talk about their feelings you are going to get millions of affection starved people using it.

They aren't looking to their peers for that. Because their peers are in the same place they are.

24

u/Lizzardkinglucas Jul 15 '26

90% of social media is "surrendered to the manospehere"? Come on now...

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u/Grey_0ne Jul 15 '26

Ignoring the fact that you probably shouldn't take every obviously tongue and cheek percentage you see on the internet literally... 4 of the 7 replies to me are parroting manosphere propaganda.

15

u/Lizzardkinglucas Jul 15 '26

So should I believe that 4 in 7 figure there or is that "tongue and cheek" as well?

10

u/whitedolphinn Jul 15 '26

You're dealing with the Goalpost Mover mini-boss.

-12

u/Grey_0ne Jul 15 '26

No one's putting a gun to your head, believe what you want or rub two brain cells together and count them for yourself.

3

u/nickiter Jul 15 '26

They didn't expect anything, I suspect... Just responded to the incentives in front of them for any particular problem. No one planned the result, except perhaps education admins who bought the Chromebook/tabletization lie.

17

u/heydropi Jul 15 '26

People didn’t surrender to the manosphere, progressive culture did not care about men so they turned elsewhere.

The right is insane, and much of our troubles come down to geopolitics and technology, but the left has a bunch of blind spots and went down questionable paths and we will have trouble winning people back without doing some self-reflection.

18

u/RatBot9000 Jul 15 '26

There was an assumption that men didn't require additional support but the truth is we all require support to navigate this world and while minorities do struggle more due to racism/sexism/homophobia etc, the healthy spaces which young men could have accessed have also been gutted by capitalism, leaving them with little to replace it with.

I sometimes wonder if the academic concept of intersectionality was deliberately introduced to 2016 Tumblr as a psyop. It did so much damage to how the upcoming Gen Z perceive the ideas of power and privilege and it very very often left class out of the discussion, usually because the people pushing it were white, middle-class suburbanites who were trying to grapple with the fact their parent's wealth didn't wield as much power as it used to.

9

u/whitedolphinn Jul 15 '26

Exactly. Manosphere was a reaction to a failure by the mainstream. In fact done deliberately in some cases. "The child [children] not accepted by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth."

1

u/Abestar909 Jul 15 '26

Unfortunately the loudest voices on the left absolutely hate true self reflection.

0

u/Grey_0ne Jul 15 '26

The manosphere doesn't exist because anyone abandoned men. Capitalism has abandoned everyone. All the care and consideration you might think this world has for minorities has only ever been a concept that existed on social media and college campuses... It never amounted to any widely adopted real world policy outside of one landmark supreme court ruling - 11 years ago.

Almost every civil liberty concerning minorities and especially women that you can name off has backslid substantially in the last decade and mediocre white dudes are still bitching like little kids on the internet that they've been left behind.

No homies... The manosphere exists because the literal moment Obama was elected in 2008, right wing media fed this narrative of the straight, white Christian man being abandoned and various media outlets and aspiring influencers figured out how to run a grift based on that idea.

The manosphere starts with a grift, it ends with a grift... The grift has perpetuated itself by further isolating boys and young men, radicalizing them straight out the gate and causing them to become authors of their own misery causing the very thing that they were trying to avoid in the first place.

Unless you all are able to connect a direct line between "the left in particular has abandoned me" and "I can't masturbate without having an existential crisis"; I'd really appreciate it if we could stop spreading this bullshit.

4

u/Bridger15 Jul 15 '26

Society didn't "decide" any of those things. Those were the most profitable actions, and we lost the way against capitalism over the last few decades, so the only thing of value is profit.

-2

u/MadeUpNoun Jul 15 '26

its entirely alarmist, a decade ago these chatbots already existed

751

u/B-BoyStance Jul 15 '26

And as chat would say, "No, handsome. It is the women who are cooked. You are never wrong. You must never be introspective. You are my precious alpha boy and you must be respected by all.

How is that? If you want it more intense, poetic, or playful just say the word. After all it's your journey and I'm here to help."

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u/sockrepublic Jul 15 '26

How is that? If you want it more intense, poetic, or playful just say the word. After all it's your journey and I'm here to help."

mr_krabs_eye_twitch.svg

79

u/Kaffohrt Jul 15 '26

Mister fancy pants over here can afford svg vs us plebs stuck with jpeg

41

u/blahajlife Jul 15 '26

do_i_look_like_i_know_what_a_jpeg_is.gif

2

u/ggroverggiraffe Jul 15 '26
Splurge on the source!

0

u/Pfhoenix Jul 15 '26

Missed opportunity to end with .jif (just to piss off even more people)

8

u/d1rTb1ke Jul 15 '26

hate to be pedantic but chat usually refers to the viewer engagement during a livestream. the streamer references the viewers by saying “chat, what do you think…” they aren’t talking to a chatbot.
i’m over 50 years old so if i’m wrong please disregard.

39

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

5

u/360Saturn Jul 15 '26

A sex worker would. There used to be (still is?) phone chat lines where for a fee women would say things like that.

15

u/Luchadorgreen Jul 15 '26

lol yep. is it any surprise that some males go for this? When you’ve been deprived of compliments and encouragement your whole life that sht hits like cocaine

10

u/zombietrooper Jul 15 '26

I'm a 43yo regular guy who is married and has a child, compliments and encouragement are some of the only things that motivate me at this point. It's an open cheat code for a better society and people still don't do it.

5

u/doyletyree Jul 15 '26

The only reasonable response here.

10

u/MaeveOathrender Jul 15 '26

Does it though? To me, and I would think anybody else with a modicum of common sense, the fact that it's not coming from a human being who means it completely sucks all the value out of such a compliment. Like fuck you mean by 'handsome?' You're an LLM, you don't know what I look like. I don't even have to wonder if you're lying.

1

u/touristtam Jul 15 '26

Why does that remind me of "Neon Genesis Evangelion"?

-4

u/Brisket-Inferno Jul 15 '26

How do either of them know this unless they've talked to one? I'm kind of off put and wierded out o.O

7

u/otterpop21 Jul 15 '26

I see this non sense take throughout the years. I’m sorry I’m calling it non sense it’s just so absurd to me

Do you really think men don’t get compliments? I met with a dude the other day and gave him a few compliments. Towards the end of the meeting I said “wow, this all looks amazing! You should be really proud of yourself for all this hard work” and the dude smiled and kinda laughed and said yeah I’m really proud of myself and I said good! You should be haha this awesome

That’s fairly normal for me to do to any person. I don’t really care what gender someone is? If you do a good job, you get nice words.

Is this really not normal to do?

I give everyone compliments all the time. Not like allllll the time, they’re genuine and meaningful when I do. When deserved why not?

2

u/statistnr1 Jul 15 '26

Is this really not normal to do?

It's really not.
When a man gives a man a compliment it's "gay" and for some people that's the worst thing you can insinuate.
When a woman compliments a man she has to be scared that the man immediately falls in love and goes full psycho stalker.
It's mans own fault for not being able to control their emotions.

5

u/civver3 Jul 15 '26

Do you really think men don’t get compliments?

It's really a self-report. I don't have a ton of friends, and yet I still get complimented. Yes, even by women.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/otterpop21 Jul 15 '26

Well I have female friends and we talk about how we have healthy conversations similar to wha ti just described and we’re as happy as we can be.

One of my friends man doesn’t believe it when she says nice stuff so they’re in counselling but there are at least a couple dozen of us out there. Some single some not.

I’ve found it to be extremely productive when I’m positive. I see a lot of women in their careers struggling because they’re so angry all the time at everyone, especially men. I’m not being sexist just speaking from my literal experiences, and growing up I saw this problem and consciously just chose to be nice and kind to everyone, regardless of how they identify.

I’m not wildly successful or anything haha I’m normal, haven’t been murdered, and most of my relationships are very positive and healthy. Feels good I sleep soundly at night.

Any friends who come to me for relationship advice I break it down to be kind & considerate. Has failed to fail

9

u/sonic_dick Jul 15 '26

Maybe if these chat bots didnt solely exist to make the user feel good, it might be good practice for young kids at talking to their crushes or something.

As is, its like talking to a more advanced smarterchild back on AIM. Canned responses based off the dumbest parts of the internet.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

0

u/sonic_dick Jul 15 '26

Did we talk to a different smarterchild?

25

u/Beliriel Jul 15 '26

Btw romantic chatbots are even more popular with girls. Just fyi.
But ofc it's only fun if we can bash men right?

2

u/EnthusiasmUnusual Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

You're being sexist against girls here. Men are obviously the problem.

Edit:  was being sarcastic if that wasn't clear

-7

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

3

u/swegga_sa Jul 15 '26

Crazy, boys can't even be boys anymore They're all grouped into the "men" label to be hated equally

3

u/RollingMeteors Jul 15 '26

And as chat would say, "No, handsome. It is the women who are cooked. You are never wrong. You must never be introspective. You are my precious alpha boy and you must be respected by all.

<proceedsToSpendWeeksSalaryOnProstitute>

4

u/Jah_Ith_Ber Jul 15 '26

This is how women have been talking to each other for decades and nobody ever had a problem with it...

1

u/yolo-yoshi Jul 15 '26

That’s just people thinking that way in general. The ai only amplifies that. But it’s always been there.

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u/Sea_Counter_5 Jul 15 '26

The is the first millennial swing and miss I’ve seen.
Chat refers to the chat of a live stream not a chatbot.

And so they become the boomers…

19

u/JayTheSuspectedFurry Jul 15 '26

Twitch chat erasure? In my Reddit comment section? It’s more likely than you think.

9

u/Matt-D-Murdock Jul 15 '26

Or it could be the double entrende, the live stream chat been replaced with bots in your chat who’ll agree to all your points

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u/nullbyte420 Jul 15 '26

No it's not, people age 25 and below call chatgpt "chat". Non-gamers

14

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/nullbyte420 Jul 15 '26

Yeah that's all true except it also refers to chatgpt which seems to have supplanted the use of "chat" entirely. 

0

u/chalbersma Jul 15 '26

You either die the Unemployed or live long enough to live to be the Boomer.

-12

u/Sevro_of_Mars Jul 15 '26

Terminally online loser here

8

u/Wiinounete Jul 15 '26

Usually twitch chat is not full of yes man and doormats, LLM are so much worse.

1

u/EngineeringOk8097 Jul 15 '26

bruh literally actually?

-2

u/RollingMeteors Jul 15 '26

>As the younger generation of streamers would say "chat im cooked"

FTFY

People that don't stream don't say this....