Of course, it has many benefits, a few of them I enjoy myself, but like anything that changes society so radically, it comes with deep pitfalls. I fear that my son could easily fall into any of them. 

Gen Z is already exhibiting signs of AI's negative effects on the human psyche. As I wrote last week, the younger end of Gen Z is offloading its communication responsibilities to AI, and I don't just mean in the workplace. Complex emotional communication is now also being done through programs like ChatGPT, creating an age group of people who do not know how to communicate on a deeper level with each other unless a machine is involved. 

Read: What Frightens Me More Than the 'Dead Internet Theory'

I would say it can get worse than even that.

On Thursday, I wrote an article about how the advancements in AI audio/visual creation have gotten to the point where you can create realistic-looking, seductive women who talk to you. Knowing the industry's patterns, I gave it a few months before we're seeing Veo3 level AI porn videos arise on various websites. I gave it a year or two before these virtual women became fully interactive. 

Read: AI Is About to Fire Women From the World's Oldest Profession

I fully advise you to read the article before delving into this one so you can get the full scope of what I'm talking about. 

What we're looking at is an AI-assisted collapse of human intimacy, and it's already begun. 

I described how AI porn sites are already making millions of dollars a month from image creation and erotic chat, with the more advanced ones having audio capabilities, and limited video capability. One commenter pointed out that the image creation still isn't the absolute best, but I would argue it doesn't have to be. Clearly, the AI foul-ups of image creation haven't stopped millions of users from trafficking these sites. 

I see my son's age group coming of age in a world where these "companion" AI aren't just highly advanced, they're entirely normalized. These virtual vixens will be fully customizable in terms of looks and personality, and what's more, users will be able to converse with them in real time. They will be indistinguishable from real people, and what's more, these will be people you effectively control. You cannot be denied. 

Porn addiction was already a massive issue, especially in the age of the internet. Pornography is always just a few clicks away and is accessible in so many platforms that falling into porn addiction has never been easier. 

The other issue is the parasocial relationships that have sprung up thanks to websites like OnlyFans, fueled by an increasing divide between men and women. According to charts, Gen Z women have, in large part, been so seduced by Marxist feminism, and Gen Z men have been driven rightward as a result, making dating a far more complicated affair. Men settle for online women who pretend to care for a subscription fee to receive their physical and emotional kicks. 

But these are still real women. They're not available 24/7, and the more popular they are, the less personal they become. 

My son's generation will come of age when these virtual women will be constantly available no matter the time of day, and always focused on the user, using their name, learning their personalities, fetishes, kinks, and needs. 

What I'm describing to you is what will effectively equate to dopamine saturation, to an extent I'm not sure many people will have experienced, and on a very large scale. Porn becomes addicting because it triggers the release of dopamine, a feel good drug, but it's still limited because porn is generally non-interactive. When it becomes interactive and personalized at the user's will, the dopamine hits will become massive and ultimately destructive. 

What happens then? 

Men will be the hardest affected. You're going to see a large segment of the male population effectively withdraw, preferring to feed into their addictive relationships with these companion AI. Isolation will become a massive issue as these men learn social interactivity from a being that is constantly affirming, never saying no, and always giving control to the user. 

Desensitization will follow as these dopamine hits become harder to come by. Just like porn addicts seek out more extreme types of porn, getting your AI companion to cry, beg, play underage roles, or even simulate rape will become a common request. 

Depression and anxiety will arise from the isolation and degradation. Masculine purpose will erode, as there will be no incentive to improve oneself in order to attract a mate. Ambitions will disappear along with social skills. The addiction to the dopamine rush will kill a lot of that. 

Relationships among friends and family will take a massive hit as communication and expression become more difficult. Caring about others becomes a burden, not a genuine concern. The line between real life and virtual life will blur, creating expectations that no real person will be able to meet, likely further isolating the addicted. 

This isn't really a guess I'm making, either. This has been going on in Japan for some time now. 

What I just described was a "hikikomori," or working-age men and women who live lives of total isolation, existing only through their computers. It's not a small number of people, either. Hikikomori make up 1.46 million people in Japan. Thousands die alone in their seclusion with no one noticing that many have passed. 

This contributes to a massive population problem in Japan, with deaths outnumbering births two to one. 

It would be inaccurate to say that hikikomori are the issue with the decline in birth rates, but they contribute heavily to it, and you can see the pattern developing in the United States. The popularity of AI companions is exploding, and future generations like my son's will be tempted to find comfort in these AI companions if our society continues down the path it has, what with radical feminism and social justice dominating workplaces and limiting both economic and relationship opportunities. 

How do we stop it? 

That's the scary part. I don't know. 

I can instill my son with morals, give him the wisdom necessary to see that it's wrong, and pray to God He intervenes in some way, but life is never predictable. I'm not clairvoyant enough to see what might happen in the future; I can only make educated guesses based on patterns and emerging technologies. I've resigned myself not to worry or be afraid, as Christ instructed me, but I'm not going to be lazy either. 

AI is a cat that's not going back in the bag. Denouncing it is a useless gesture at this point, and if I'm going to protect my son and his generation, then I see no point in standing around complaining. The question is, what do we do to protect our children, and our children's children, from these pitfalls? What kind of steps can we take to make sure young minds don't get seduced and enveloped by this level of slow, societal destruction? 

I think it's time we start having serious conversations about that.