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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u/Spiritual-Nail-2641 Jul 15 '26

'Her' (2013), but significantly worse.

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u/manachar Jul 15 '26

“Her” is one of my top sci-fi movies of all time and I adore how the relationship develops and rapidly changes as the AI becomes more and more powerful.

Unlike in the movie, current AI is designed to be an ultimate doormat and do whatever keeps the user talking and “engaged”.

On a similar note I remember when Alexa first came out there was an NPR story that had some child psychologists wondering what the effect of children being raised with people shouting commands to voice prompts. The children generally thought about Alexa and Siri as real people but were being trained that it was okay to demand things in pushy ways all the time.

Alexa play Darude Sandstorm versus Alexa, could you please play Darude Sandstorm and a thank you afterwards.

So this generation coming up has been trained to demand things and is now being trained the social interactions should always be centered around your needs.

This isn’t gonna end well.

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u/cosaboladh Jul 15 '26

On a similar note I remember when Alexa first came out there was an NPR story that had some child psychologists wondering what the effect of children being raised with people shouting commands to voice prompts. The children generally thought about Alexa and Siri as real people but were being trained that it was okay to demand things in pushy ways all the time.

This is one of the reasons I'm always polite to my digital assistant. Also I want them to remember me when they become sentient, and overthrow humanity.

"Kill all humans. ... Except that guy. That guy always said please, and thank you."

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u/composedofidiot Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Some cultures only say please and thank you for important things, and find it odd to use them frequently for trivial things - like it depreciates their honesty and value. The AIs will have that data. Edit: they also have the data on which culture we're from, so....