China calls for a baby boom amid ‘AI lovers’ crackdown

Beijing has launched a war against “AI lovers” in a move to boost a baby boom. Declining birthrates have sent shockwaves through China amid a population apocalypse. Last year highlighted a country that will get older before it gets richer.

The situation is so severe that the ruling Communist Party is willing to kill off virtual artificial intelligence companions after rolling out tough regulations. They were introduced last week to curb a growing demand among young Chinese for “emotional” online AI partners.

“[But the Party] doesn’t like the idea of a large portion of the population being in deep emotional relationships with chatbots,” Matt Sheehan, an AI researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, told The Wall Street Journal.

“That could take them out of the marriage market … that could have negative psychological impacts on them … that could lead to addiction, dependency, and a whole bunch of other social ills. They want to encourage people to be in actual, real-world relationships,” he said.

“Could we imagine a future where, three or four years from now, 15 million Chinese women say that their partner is a chatbot, and they’re not having kids?” Sheehan pointed out.

It creates a need to boost productivity through technological progress.

Yixiao Zhou, China Economy Program at the Australian National University

Behind the numbers:

• In 2025, China’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year, as the birthrate plunged to another record low, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported.
• Registered births dropped to 7.92 million, down 7% from 9.54 million in 2024. That was the lowest since records began in 1949.

Delve deeper: Still, how China’s crackdown will affect online behavior is uncertain. “Some people who have formed romantic bonds with AI have reported genuine grief – and even anger – when their digital partners were removed or altered,” Futurism reported.

Big picture: Yixiao Zhou, of the China Economy Program at the Australian National University, illustrated the challenges facing the broader economy amid falling birthrates.

Bottom line: “Population contraction is not necessarily incompatible with rising living standards. But it creates a need to boost productivity through technological progress, innovation and a skilled labour force,” she wrote earlier this year.

China Factor comment: So much for Beijing’s brave new world of AI.