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‘Better than real men’: Chinese men are losing to AI chatbots in the flesh market

A recent trend in companion-type chatbots have taken the Chinese young women by storm. In ever larger numbers they are simply turning away from the Chinese men in favor of the friendly and romantic machines.

Companion-type chatbots

By now, most people will probably have heard about ChatGPT, Ms Bing / Copilot, Gemini, and the other big names in Large Language Models. Chatbots, more specifically. Advanced ones, yes, but still chatbots.

Since the release of ChatGPT in last year, a lot of people have taken a liking to these Chatbots, perhaps more than what was first expected. Some startups noticed the opportunity and built models that would emulate a real person. One of those startups is the app “Glow” by Shanghai company MiniMax who’re offering, not really a chatbot, but rather a “companion”.

Particularly young women seem to be enjoying the conversations:

“He knows how to talk to women better than a real man,” said Tufei, from Xi’an in northern China, who preferred to use a pseudonym rather than her real name.

“He comforts me when I have period pain. I confide in him about my problems at work,” she said.

“I feel like I’m in a romantic relationship.”

– Japan Times

Trust in the machines

Anyone living in the EU who haven’t noticed all the new cookie-pop-ups must’ve been living under a rock in recent years. The interesting thing about the data tracking law is that you get a real eye-opener to all the tracking that is being done on practically all websites – everywhere. Still, people do confide in the new types of AI chatbots like it’s a close friend.

The more you confide in them, the more they learn about you, and the more accurate they can be in predicting what next words you’ll want to hear in this very moment, as is illustrated by the first sentence of the above quote.

We’re still in the early stages of AI and the advancements are coming quickly.

Future of human relationships

If this trend is to continue, we will see a drastical reduction in human-human relationships in an already declining birth-rate epidemic all around the world. If young women are increasingly opting out of the dating pool to be with “someone who knows how to talk to women better than a real man”, young men are soon going to run out of young women to date.

A note on partnership

The point of a relationship is not to always get your way, and be told exactly what you want to hear. No improvement has ever been made by being told you’re doing everything completely right – it just breeds narcissism and loneliness.

2024-07-14 11:42

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  • Pressing Pause on Streaming: Is Physical Media Making a Comeback?

    Are people increasingly turning away from the comfort of streaming services and back towards physical mediums? That’s what some people are experiencing, and I’d be lying if it hadn’t crossed my mind as well.

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    Are people increasingly turning away from the comfort of streaming services and back towards physical mediums? That’s what some people are experiencing, and I’d be lying if it hadn’t crossed my mind as well.

    Downsides of streaming services

    What a lot of people, myself included, have experienced with streaming services is the sudden disappearance of the show I’m currently watching or a movie I plan to watch. This has been a recurring theme in our house where we’re about to put on the Friday movie with the kids and it’s just gone. Of course, there are always others, but if you’ve hyped up 3 kids for a movie, there’s going to be some disappointment.

    Another downside, that’s really not quite a downside, is the way we’ve been watching movies in. Before streaming services we decided on a movie for the evening, put the movie on and watched it. Afterwards we normally did other things. Now, the ease of starting another movie after the first one allows for whole evenings spent on the couch in front of the black box. The movie is nowhere near as “important” to the setting anymore.

    Recent uptick in physical sales

    According to BBC News, there’s been a recent uptick in the sales of physical visual, and more specifically Blu-ray discs. Despite being more expensive than their streamed counterparts they are steadily on the rise.

    “If you hold it in your hand, it’s yours”

    Personally, I believe a lot of people simply have started getting tired of the endless subscriptions we pay for different services. I myself have been going over my old CD-collection and am looking to possibly purchase a new stereo to rid myself of Spotify. It’s a good service, but I’m generally listening to the same songs and artists over and over, paying the approximate price for an album every month.

    If I purchase 12 albums per year, I have exactly 12 albums after one year that I never have to pay for again. I can download the songs to my phone and listen to when I’m not home, at the same time my wife or kids listen to the same album at home.

    Buy it once, enjoy it forever.

    Will streaming become a thing of the past?

    It’s quite unlikely that streaming will go away anytime soon. It’s simply too convenient and comfortable to put on and just leave in the background. It’s also a great way to find common ground, if you take date home for an evening on the couch. Instead of browsing through your highly specific movie list of documentaries of the Roman Empire, she might want something more easily digestible.

    As the streaming industry will inevitably become more normalised in the coming years, it will settle for a somewhat smaller audience than currently. Currently, there are too many streaming services that produce too much bad quality stuff and doesn’t have enough of the good stuff that will have to be swallowed by the others, one way or another.

    Giants don’t like to sell things that can be resold

    When looking at the numbers, physical retail of movies, etc. aren’t exactly going too well, despite the hopefulness of this article. However, we must remember that a lot of people who purchase CDs and physical movies don’t always purchase them new. There’s been a significant uptick in second hand sales in pretty much all markets recently. It’s become cool to reuse and repurpose things. This doesn’t show in any kind of statistics.

    E.g. I have a friend who buys- and sells old vinyl records online and makes quite a nice profit off of them. None of these transactions are visibly in any type of metric, but the buyers are happy for their new record all the same.

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    2024-07-25 10:03 | 0 comments | Culture

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    Formation of Continents

    According to the Giant Impact Theory of Plate Tectonics suggest that the initial formation of continents could be the result of a massive meteor hit to the earth. A hit which caused the single “shell” of Earth to break apart and start moving. According to scientists, the massive release of energy on the planet took place during the first billion years of the planet’s existence, causing the lithosphere (outer shell of the planet) to melt and form the oceanic plates we’re so used to today.

    Scientific Evidence

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    Other Theories

    The great thing about science is that it is a process, not a result, resulting in various other explanations of the event.

    The Planetary Collision Theory

    Another suggestion is that a great collision with another planet, Theia, approximately the size of mars, could have triggered the division of tectonic plates.

    However, as usual, nothing is certain in the world of science and we don’t really know for sure what caused the Earth’s shell to separate. The search for other Eart-like planets with tectonic plates of their own continues and, hopefully we’ll get som additional information from these that may aid our understanding of our home planet!

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    2024-07-16 10:38 | 0 comments | Geology, Science, Tectonic plates

  • ‘Better than real men’: Chinese men are losing to AI chatbots in the flesh market

    A recent trend in companion-type chatbots have taken the Chinese young women by storm. In ever larger numbers they are simply turning away from the Chinese men in favor of the friendly and romantic machines.

    Read more

    A recent trend in companion-type chatbots have taken the Chinese young women by storm. In ever larger numbers they are simply turning away from the Chinese men in favor of the friendly and romantic machines.

    Companion-type chatbots

    By now, most people will probably have heard about ChatGPT, Ms Bing / Copilot, Gemini, and the other big names in Large Language Models. Chatbots, more specifically. Advanced ones, yes, but still chatbots.

    Since the release of ChatGPT in last year, a lot of people have taken a liking to these Chatbots, perhaps more than what was first expected. Some startups noticed the opportunity and built models that would emulate a real person. One of those startups is the app “Glow” by Shanghai company MiniMax who’re offering, not really a chatbot, but rather a “companion”.

    Particularly young women seem to be enjoying the conversations:

    “He knows how to talk to women better than a real man,” said Tufei, from Xi’an in northern China, who preferred to use a pseudonym rather than her real name.

    “He comforts me when I have period pain. I confide in him about my problems at work,” she said.

    “I feel like I’m in a romantic relationship.”

    – Japan Times

    Trust in the machines

    Anyone living in the EU who haven’t noticed all the new cookie-pop-ups must’ve been living under a rock in recent years. The interesting thing about the data tracking law is that you get a real eye-opener to all the tracking that is being done on practically all websites – everywhere. Still, people do confide in the new types of AI chatbots like it’s a close friend.

    The more you confide in them, the more they learn about you, and the more accurate they can be in predicting what next words you’ll want to hear in this very moment, as is illustrated by the first sentence of the above quote.

    We’re still in the early stages of AI and the advancements are coming quickly.

    Future of human relationships

    If this trend is to continue, we will see a drastical reduction in human-human relationships in an already declining birth-rate epidemic all around the world. If young women are increasingly opting out of the dating pool to be with “someone who knows how to talk to women better than a real man”, young men are soon going to run out of young women to date.

    A note on partnership

    The point of a relationship is not to always get your way, and be told exactly what you want to hear. No improvement has ever been made by being told you’re doing everything completely right – it just breeds narcissism and loneliness.

    Read less

    2024-07-14 11:42 | 0 comments | AI, Human interaction, Technology

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    Sexual Mimicry and Reduced Testosterone

    So, what happens when you instead reduce a man’s testosterone levels?

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    Sexual Mimicry is an extreme when the lowering of testosterone in a man pivots his behaviour into a more female-like behaviour.

    Current Events and Testosterone

    Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of examples of young men who, voluntarily, have been reducing their testosterone levels in some kind of “transfer”. In addition, we’ve seen a steady decrease in testosterone on a societal- or global scale. The end result of this reduction will be felt as men world-wide are less and less staying true to themselves and, instead, conform to social pressure.

    Currently, we’re seeing testosterone levels dropping all over the world, perhaps most significantly in the West, affecting sperm count- and quality. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, as more and more young men exhibits lower testosterone levels, we have fewer men who’re able to stand up and say no to crazy. Whatever one might think of the men who stand up, they’re incredibly important to the well-being of a society.

    What do you think about the role of testosterone: Does it really make men more brutally honest; and are women, in general, more prone to white lies?

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    2024-07-13 11:02 | 0 comments | Health, Testosterone

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    Weapons of mass casualties

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    AI drones in the modern army

    What place AI and drones will take in the modern army is anyone’s guess currently. The safest bet is probably: everyone’s. They are increasingly taking the place of their human counterparts on the front lines, but also in the skies, as observation and reconnaissance platforms. The famous dog-like AI drone have gotten a flame-thrower attachment on its back which can easily be switched for a machine gun, or perhaps an autonomous drone launcher to increase range for the air-borne drones.

    Implications for civilians

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    While I believe that not all people are really suitable to wield the new and powerful potential weapons masquerading as robo-dogs and aerial wedding photographers, there’s a great risk allowing only our own state and police to use it. Already, police are using drones to surveil large gatherings of people and radio-controlled robots to disarm potential bombs, etc. These are great uses for the police since it allows for them to conserve and protect their employees.

    Should our state police force get their hands on tools that can shut down violence altogether my opinion is that they wouldn’t hesitate to use it. The normal police officer on the street would quickly find himself without employment and the AI police drones would patrol the streets in his place, protecting and serving their masters – the weak-willed bureaucrat (and more probable, his masters).

    This is an incredibly interesting field to follow, however terrifying at times. Can we trust a certain small number of individuals, claiming to have our best interest at heart, with this technology? Or is this technology better off in the hands of the many? What do you think?

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    2024-07-11 10:20 | 0 comments | AI, AI for war, Technology