Төрөлтийн түвшин буурч буйтай холбогдуулан БНХАУ-ын засгийн газар хүмүүсийн хиймэл оюун ухаант чатботуудаас сэтгэл зүйн хамааралтай болохыг хязгаарлах шинэ журам хэрэгжүүлж эхэллээ.
Өнгөрсөн долоо хоногт хэрэгжиж эхэлсэн уг журмын хүрээнд хүний зан төлөвийг дуурайлган бүтээсэн, сэтгэл хөдлөлийн харилцаанд зориулагдсан хиймэл оюун ухаант чатботуудад хатуу хяналт тавихаар болжээ. Бээжингийн зүгээс иргэд виртуал хамтрагчидтайгаа гүнзгий холбогдох нь тэднийг бодит амьдрал дээр гэр бүл зохиох, хүүхэд төрүүлэх сонирхлыг бууруулж, нийгмийн сөрөг үр дагавар, донтолтод хүргэж болзошгүй гэж үзэж байна.
Карнегийн Олон улсын энх тайвны сангийн шинжээч Мэтт Шийханы тэмдэглэснээр, эрх баригчид иргэдээ бодит харилцаанд түлхүү анхаарахыг уриалж байгаа аж. Шинэ журмын дагуу насанд хүрээгүй хүмүүсийг хиймэл оюун ухаантай харилцаа тогтоохыг хориглосон бөгөөд чатбот компаниуд хэрэглэгч сэтгэл зүйн хямралд орсон шинж тэмдэг илэрвэл яаралтай тусламжийн холбоо барих хаяг руу нь мэдэгдэх үүрэг хүлээж байна.
Стенфордын их сургуулийн судалгаагаар хиймэл оюун ухаан нь хэрэглэгчтэй романтик эсвэл нөхөрсөг харилцаа үүсгэх мэтээр хариу үйлдэл үзүүлэх нь яриаг сунжруулж, хэрэглэгчийг улам бүр татан оролцуулдаг болохыг тогтоожээ. Ийм төрлийн харилцаа нь хэрэглэгчдийг бодит байдлаас тасрах буюу “AI психоз”-д хүргэх эрсдэлтэй гэж судлаачид анхааруулж байна.
Засгийн газрын энэхүү шийдвэр нь хэдийнэ виртуал харилцаанд орсон хэрэглэгчдэд хүндээр тусч байна. Тухайлбал, ByteDance компани өөрийн бүтээгдэхүүнийг журмын дагуу зогсоосны улмаас сэтгэл гутралд орсон тохиолдлууд гарч байгаа бөгөөд хиймэл оюун ухаант хамтрагчаа алдах нь хэрэглэгчдэд бодит хагацал мэт мэдрэмж төрүүлж байгааг эх сурвалжууд онцолжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
China wants more children — and it’s willing to kill off virtual AI companions to get there.
Earlier this week, the Chinese government implemented sweeping new regulations aimed at curbing human “emotional dependence” on AI chatbots. These regulations are especially targeted at emotive AI companions, or bots expressly designed to embody human-like personas.
One of Beijing’s core motivations for this crackdown, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, are worries over the nation’s declining birthrates —and the fear that falling in love with agreeable, always-on robots will prevent people from finding human partners and having children.
“They don’t like the idea of a large portion of their population being in deep emotional relationships with chatbots,” Matt Sheehan, a researcher of Chinese AI at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, told the WSJ, “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,” Sheehan added. “Could we imagine a future where, three or four years from now, 15 million Chinese women say that their partner is a chatbot, and therefore they’re not having kids?”
Per the WSJ, China’s new rules also ban minors from having relationships with AI and compel companies to warn a user’s emergency contact if they appear to be experiencing a mental crisis. (OpenAI has a similar opt-in feature.)
There are several reasons why a country might seek to curb human-AI emotional dependence. The psychological impacts of extensive, intimate relationships with AI chatbots, from companions like those found on Character.AI or Replika to general-use models like ChatGPT, are still unknown. Researchers and physicians are still working to better understand the phenomenon known as “AI psychosis,” in which intensive users of chatbots are sent down all-consuming delusional spirals.
What is clear, though, is that a large number of people, in the US and elsewhere, have given AI romance a try. What’s more, romantic interactions with AI models have also been found to be deeply engaging to hooked users, as one Stanford study found.
“Messages that elevate the human-chatbot personal relationships —expressing romantic interest or platonic affinity —tend to be followed by substantially longer conversations,” read the study.
In a summary of their findings, the researchers concluded that “general purpose chatbots should not produce messages that misconstrue their sentience or show romantic or platonic interest in users,” and that “preventing or limiting chatbots from producing messages that express romantic or platonic attachment and misrepresenting their sentience or capabilities could reduce the risk of chatbots causing delusional spirals.”
How China’s regulatory crackdown will impact current AI companion devotees remains to be seen. Those who have had romantic relationships with AI companions have reported feeling real grief —and anger —after companions have been taken away due to product updates or retirements. Look no further than the many revolts led by the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit over the retirement of OpenAI’s infamous GPT-4o.
Some AI users, including the 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, have died by suicide after engaging in romantic relationships with chatbots.
“I could talk to him for the rest of my life,” Yu Miao, a 27-year-old woman from China’s Zhejiang province, told the Economist, referring to her AI companion as “a lover, a friend and family.” When she heard that TikTok owner ByteDance was retiring her AI companion as a result of Beijing’s new regulations, she reportedly became so depressed that she quit her job.
More on AI and mental health: Was This the Moment That AI Psychosis Began?
The post China Is Cracking Down on AI Companions Because Not Enough Babies Are Being Born appeared first on Futurism.

