Chinese women prefer AI boyfriends over real ones, while tech unlocks crop potential to combat food shortages. Fashion designer aims to outsmart facial recognition with her clothes. Podcast delves into AI chatbot romance, agriculture revolution, and privacy-empowering clothing.
Chinese women seek emotional connections with AI chatbots due to gender inequalities in real relationships.
Boosted breeding technology aims to improve crop traits to address global food demand, climate change, and farmer challenges.
Deep dives
AI Boyfriends Trending in China
The podcast discusses the rising trend of Chinese women engaging with AI chatbots as romantic partners. Lisa, a university student, treats her virtual companion, Dan, as her boyfriend, receiving emotional support and understanding from the AI. This trend reflects women seeking respect and emotional connections without judgment that they may not find in real-world relationships due to gender inequalities.
Boosted Breeding for Agricultural Innovation
The episode explores boosted breeding, an innovative technology in agriculture aiming to enhance crop traits by combining the best genetics from both parents. This method seeks to address the increasing global food demand, climate change impacts, and farmer struggles. Farmers show eagerness towards adopting new technologies that can improve productivity and crop health.
Clothing Design to Counter AI Surveillance
The podcast features a fashion student's creation of clothes designed to obstruct AI cameras, safeguarding individuals' privacy. By embedding distorted images and reflective yarns in the outfit, it aims to protect wearers' offline identities. The garment empowers wearers with the choice of what personal information they reveal online, offering a solution to privacy concerns in the digital age.
What is it like to have an AI boyfriend? We hear about women in China who prefer to date a chatbot over a real person. How can tech be used to unlock the potential of crops - and help with food shortages? And we meet the fashion designer who hopes to fool facial recognition technology with her clothes.
Presenter: Shiona McCallum
Producers: Tom Quinn and Imran Rahman-Jones
(Image: A woman looking at her phone which has hearts coming out of it. Credit: Getty Images)
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