Japan pours millions into AI-powered dating to get its people making babies again
- Reference: 1607495172
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/12/09/japan_ai_dating/
- Source link:
“We are especially planning to offer subsidies to local governments operating or starting up matchmaking projects that use AI,” an official said, [1]according to Japan Times. “We hope this support will help reverse the decline in the nation’s birth rate.”
The investment will be doled out to local governments next year, when the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will hopefully come to an end and singletons can safely be within six feet of one another again. Nearly half of Japan's prefectures already offer a dating service, where applicants submit details including names, ages, educational backgrounds, and incomes to look for a potential match.
Match.com? More like Match dot-con, claims watchdog: Cyber-lonely-hearts 'lured into forking out to view bot spam' [2]READ MORE
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, however, reckons that the latest machine-learning algorithms could spice things up, and lead to more babies. Better software could take into account other factors, including a person’s interests, values, or hobbies to predict the compatibility for couples.
Japan has a population exceeding 126 million, and has been steadily declining over the years as women have fewer children. It has one of the lowest birth rates; numerous schools and nurseries have shut down. The number of babies born last year hit record lows, falling under 865,000, [3]according to the BBC.
A low birth rate coupled with people living longer lives means that it has an aging workforce that’s shrinking, which spells bad news for the economy, hence the couples and baby drive. It’ll be difficult for the Japanese government to provide welfare and healthcare as its population ages. ®
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[1] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/07/national/japan-ai-funding-matchmaking/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/25/ftc_match_fake_users/
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55226098
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sexless
It's not abortions, abortion rate is below world average:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/abortion-rates-by-country
Abortion rate at 12.3 per 1000 women is *below* world average of 15.24.
More like they're not having sex.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/09/16/national/social-issues/sexless-japan-almost-half-young-men-women-virgins-survey/
"A survey of Japanese people aged 18 to 34 found that almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship."
"Moreover, many of them have never got close and cuddly. Around 42 percent of the men and 44.2 percent of the women admitted they were virgins."
"The government won’t be pleased that sexlessness is becoming as Japanese as sumo and sake. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has talked up boosting the birthrate through support for child care, but until the nation bones up on bedroom gymnastics there’ll be no medals to hand out."
"Far from getting together and getting it on, the sexes are growing apart. There are now many more virgins than in 2010, when the last study was conducted and when only 36.2 percent of men and 38.7 percent of women said they had never had sex."
Yeah, do you know which group has consistently been top of the abortion statistics?
Fundamentalist christians. Yeah, you know, the "pro-life" mob.
I can't help but remember...
I can't help but remember the episode of Futurama "I Dated a Robot".
Japan could do it.
Icon because of the "asset augmentation" that happened in Terminator 3...
I hope the Japanese dating apps are better than the UK ones. I've used some of the UK ones and, well... *sigh*
I know, I ended up with the Wife.
(Joke in case she's reading this)
It's not dating, it's the society
The problem is not a lack of dating or sex.
I venture humans are naturally inclined/programmed to procreate. However, if you put them in a turbo-competitive society, and take all-things-social away (every man for himself), procreation gets chopped on the block of cost&benefit.
Why would a woman even consider having children, if there is no societal support, and having children means end-of-career and total economic dependence on her bloke?
Alternative AI
Maybe they could encourage use of another sort of AI to produce more babies.
Re: Alternative AI
Yes, yes, I like it. We could have vast baby farms run by AI machines that also raise the child through to adulthood via a form of virtual reality teaching / life experience.
Re: Alternative AI
That makes a lot more sense than the Matrix backstory.
It sounds like the economy only works if there is positive population growth? Surely it would be smarter, in the long run, to figure out an economical system that works at stable or slowly decreasing population? I don't believe that economical growth is necessarily bounded, but population growth within any given nation is definitely bounded.
Hummm... There are plenty of babies being made but abortion seems to be used as a method of birth control.
It's a very messed up situation wrapped up in complex social mores.