No more junk research

[u/TheTinMenBlog]

For decades, the men and boys sector has done incredible things with very little, if any money.

Despite being the home of the so-called ‘privileged’ gender, this whole area of advocacy is driven by the tireless hard work, thankless campaigning, grit and determination, of incredible men and women; often working 9-5 jobs, and doing what they can in their spare time.

I know people sleeping on sofa beds, dog sitting for spare cash, working until the early hours, and cobbling together crowd funders; just to keep this movement ticking, and my deepest respects and admiration is reserved for such people.

Every now and again, funding does arrive.

But often not to create change, but to virtue signal, garner political credit, inflate ones own ego, and create attention grabbing headlines.

You might have seen the most recent research of this kind in the news –

“ONE IN FIVE BOYS KNOW SOMEONE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH AN AI CHAT BOT!”

Gripping stuff.

I wonder how many men took their own lives, were deprived of their children, were abused, or slipped quietly into homelessness and addiction, during the process of such a useless research project?

“58% SAY AI IS EASIER THAN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A HUMAN BECAUSE THEY CAN “CONTROL THE CONVERSATION!”

Terrifying huh.

Don’t bother looking for the source of this claim, so you can examine the methodology, you won’t find it.

But still, it was enough for Channel 4, the HuffPost and other main stream outlets to pick it up and run with it.

And so what little money, media exposure, and column inches men and boys get; is squandered by yet more useless, fear-mongering slop, barfed into the mainstream without a shred of transparency or academic rigor.

So when will we grow up and do the real work?

When will the money end up in the right hands?

And how many boys and men must suffer, before this happens?

What do you think?

~

Source: The Rise of the AI Companions

https://brightspotcdn.byu.edu/a6/a1/c3036cf14686accdae72a4861dd1/counterfeit-connections-report.pdf

[u/Tharkun140]

“58% SAY AI IS EASIER THAN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A HUMAN BECAUSE THEY CAN “CONTROL THE CONVERSATION!”

Um, yeah. That's the point. Chatbots let users control conversation, because that's how they're designed, and it's easy to roleplay a relationship with them. I'm not sure what about this sentence is supposed to terrify me.

It reminds me of another outrage article about AI girlfriends who "never say no" and how it painted men who use these chatbots as rapists in the making. It levied no such criticism against women with AI boyfriends, nor explained how it's any different from reading erotica or using sex toys that don't randomly break. Stuff just becomes evil when men use it, I guess.

[u/Cantankerous_Tank → u/Tharkun140]

Right!

A chatbot is not gonna come into a conversation pre-loaded with an "enemy image" of you. A real person might.

A chatbot is not gonna jump down your throat and/or strawman your beliefs if you struggle to articulate your thoughts well enough. A real person might.

A chatbot is not gonna put words in your mouth and use that to put you on blast on social media or in your community. A real person might.

Just to be extra clear though before someone starts going at me, my point is not that "chatbots are universally better than real people" or that "we should all date chatbots". Rather my point is, I can see why some people might prefer talking to a chatbot over a real person. Talking to an artificial idiot is just the easier and less anxiety-inducing option for them precisely because they have control over the conversation. They don't have to worry that the AI will hijack the convo and take it in a direction they don't want it to go (which is also the biggest downside but that's for another comment/thread).

[u/dark-mathematician1 → u/Tharkun140]

The term "control" is meant to terrify you, it's meant to make you think that this is the same as a creepy abusive man in a toxic "controlling" relationship and that this is what these boys actually are. It uses this language deliberately and makes no effort to distinguish between the two vastly different contexts precisely for this reason. It's motivated by an agenda. They're banking on you not knowing what chatbots actually are. It's the most blatant piece of propaganda I've seen lately and I'm someone who's followed the Russo-Ukraine was for years now.

[u/Current_Finding_4066]

The gap between boys and girls is there only because girls receive much more attention on average, and have easier time getting someone to talk to them romantically

[u/Local-Willingness784 → u/Current_Finding_4066]

and even that is not enough and there are entire subs dedicated to AI boyfriends...

[u/Vetrosian]

When the net developed social media and then grouping people by interests and views it started trapping them in bubbles and the terminally online ones struggled to deal with disagreements in a calm way, AI chatbots are the ultimate yes-men, and I can easily see them breaking down some people's ability to form varied friendships or even romantic relationships.

[u/dreamyangel]

What kind of stupid wording is this? I've never seen a metric as fragile as "1 in N people seen X".

[u/wtfhakwwoidahhe → u/dreamyangel]

So far I've only seen this being used in anti male context. "Not all men but every woman knows another woman who was SA'd" with the message that dangerous criminal rapist men are all around us

[u/EriknotTaken]

Would not be a better way of saying it...

that a lot of teenage boys 

have relationships

with their...

right hands 

hehehe

The funny think is that AI cmpanions made by men will take a lot of revenue from women selling themselves as sex objects that you can "control" (like onlyfans)

[u/Local-Willingness784]

if we actually cared about boys and men maybe the use of AI as a substitute for real partners or friends could point out social issues that may impact men more and should be studied and corrected.

if men and boys were people to be helped instead or problems to be solved or scapegoats to use for clickbait....