Falling Birthrate Blamed on A.I. Partners

The news comes after a record low yearly birth rate. The U.S. saw less than 3 million babies being born this year, a number not seen since the 1920s and well below the replacement rate. The monetary incentives for new born had some short lasting effect mostly encouraging people who already wanted to have kids.

Experts are now warning that there won’t be enough people to sustain stable population numbers once the latest generation reaches working age. To fulfill the nation’s need for the young generation, the government will have to attract immigrant families with many children and encourage  women of birthing age from neighboring countries to become US citizens. The other alternative might be normalizing the artificial womb. While technically possible for parents who do not want to go through child bearing, this method is still rarely used due to poorly understood long term side effects.

The report has already received backlash from critics who argue that officials are placing unnecessary blame on A.I. partners for the falling birth rate and ignoring other societal factors such as life long education requirements, ban of romantic relationships in High schools and Colleges, virtual reality addiction, etc. Critics are suggesting that the government is using A.I. partners as scapegoats and that they are using the report to cover up years of inadequate governmental care about demographics. 

Officials in government are now taking steps to restrict the issue and use of the A.I. partners, however, legal experts suggest that this is a near-impossible task due to the difficulty of enforcing such a ban. A plan from a Forward Party leaked this morning seems to suggest that the government will offer a monetary incentive to women who’ll work as surrogate wombs for men with A.I. partners, making it possible for the A.I. and human couple to have a child. Extensive egg banks and genetic engineering advances would even make it possible for the father to model the child after the A.I. partner’s ‘image’. 

However, part of this law will mean that the A.I. partners will officially be registered as “parents”, bringing complications in rights for an A.I. entity who is not yet considered a “person” - at least legally. Critics are also warning that the effect of an A.I. parent on a child is not well studied, especially considering that AI personality could be significantly changed over lifetime.