Will China's A.I. Nanny Pods Solve China's Fertility Problems?
Michael Spencer
A.I. Writer, researcher and curator - full-time Newsletter publication manager.
Artificial intelligence will help solve some of our biggest problems in society in the decades to come.
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China's Entire Society Will be Based on Artificial Intelligence
People misunderstand what China’s A.I. based society will become. We know as a global society the biggest drag on global GDP will be an aging population and changing demographics. We know China will be especially vulnerable to this problem.
China is the leader in the?4th Industrial Revolution?due to its ability to mould policy around a new kind of Neo Surveillance Capitalism that puts the smart city and A.I. at the center of everything. From its adoption of EVs to its leadership in E-commerce and mobile app ecosystems of convenience, its consumer society is more dedicated to utility. Instead of having an internet based on advertising, China fosters technologies that are practical and built to support common prosperity.
It’s a very different model that extends to the implementation of A.I., facial recognition and how the State can scale new technologies quickly, such as China’s new CBDC, the digital yuan. The e-CNY has around 270 million users to date. But this is not today’s story.
China’s Fertility Crisis Will Push Government Experiments
Mainland China's birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021, extending a downward trend that led Beijing last year to begin allowing couples to have up to three children. Nothing seems to be working, with wealth inequality and the cost of living in major cities in China, coupled with long ‘996’ working hours making parenthood an increasingly difficult thing to fulfill for young people.
Experts have warned that the country could hit its demographic breaking point more quickly than previously expected, resulting in a dwindling labour force, a strained pension system, among other economic problems to a consumer economy. Increasingly?more educated GenZ women in China are rejecting?tradition and starting a family young.
We know that we are at the cusp of a biotechnology and genomics revolution in society, of tailored babies and genetic profiling. What if the State in China took charge of some aspects of dealing with its fertility crisis. While marriage and childbirth have become ‘almost synonymous with the stress of life for us young people’, according to 90s born young people in China, what if in the future kids were grown and not raised?
It could be less science-fiction and more reality than you think in the 21st century.
AiSupremacy is a Newsletter at the intersection of A.I. and breaking news.?You can keep up to date with the articles?here.
Chinese scientists create AI nanny to look after babies in artificial womb
The news came out in late January 2022. Researchers in Suzhou, China have developed an AI system able to monitor and take care of embryos as they grow into fetuses in the lab.
China will need to have some drastic solutions to its demographic pyramid problem. Technology won’t be a problem for its future application, but legal and ethical concerns might, warns Beijing-based researchers.
The reported birth rate in 2021 was 7.52 per 1000 people with a natural growth rate of 0.034, the?lowest in 60 years, according to Reuters.?China is by far the most likely global regime to implement some pretty bizarre applications in biotechnology, nano-technology and genomics, all combined with artificial intelligence in the 21st century, such as?super soldiers.
Robots and artificial intelligence may now be used in conjunction to optimize the generation of human life, marking a significant milestone in the science. The unveiling of such a Robot A.I. Nanny suggests that China’s application of A.I. in science could literally create a new kind of society.
Robotics and artificial intelligence can now assist in the development of newborns via the use of algorithms and artificial wombs, which is eerily similar to what we see in the cult classic,?The Matrix.
The AI nanny is reportedly able to monitor the embryos, detect changes, and adjust their artificial environment accordingly. It can even alert a technician in case an embryo develops a defect or dies.?
A.I Can Help Moderate Artificial Womb Environments
The discoveries were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Biomedical Engineering by Suzhou-based scientists. The AI nanny, according to the researchers, might aid in the growth of human kids in a “long-term embryo culture device.”
From what I understand at the moment, the new technology is being utilized to assist in the development of animal embryos that are developing into fetuses in the laboratory. This is due to the fact that the act of experimenting on human embryos older than two weeks is prohibited under international law.
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The idea is simple. It will simulate the natural environment as much as possible. This artificial womb is a big machine containing compartments for individual fetuses. The infants will be fed as they would be in a real womb if they are in the chamber, which will be filled with an optimized mix of “nutritious fluids.”
Additionally, as the SMCP points out, surrogacy is prohibited in China. Because artificial wombs would effectively convert a hospital or laboratory into a mother under Chinese legislation, the technology is unlikely to be deployed in the area anytime soon.
However given the gravity of the fertility crisis, China understands the time bomb of demographics to GDP growth. China’s new regulatory bodies could create the A.I. ethics of the future, based on necessity and nationalism, and not necessarily aligned with international law.
I would say this is more likely to happen than many experts realize. If this is being done on animals for public viewing, there are certainly covert labs potentially doing this with real humans. This is because for members of Generation Z in China, winning at life does not necessarily involve getting married or having children, no matter how much their parents and the government want them to.
Secret Trials of This Technology Are Highly Likely Already Happening
A research paper published in the?Journal of Biomedical Engineering?described how the robotic nanny has already been used to nurture animal embryos within an artificial womb environment.
“There are still many unsolved mysteries about the physiology of typical human embryonic development,” the paper stated, adding that the technology would “not only help further understand the origin of life and embryonic development of humans, but also provide a theoretical basis for solving birth defects and other major reproductive health problems.”
I predict China will lead this field of real life overseen by A.I. Nannies. This future of carrying babies to term, eliminating the need for pregnancy in mothers and increasing the safety of embryonic development is closer than we imagine.
It would also facilitate designer babies and children loyal to the state in a way that would contrast with the individualism seen more now with the young people in China. Collectivism augmented with the power of technology will produce some interesting experiments and scenarios. They might actually be more successful for the survival of the human species.
Advent of A.I. Birth Centers in China by 2035
China’s demographic crisis is extremely serious for China’s plans to uplift the country with common prosperity. The generational clash of values is a very serious concern for the Chinese Government and the country’s stability, both politically and economically.
China will leverage A.I. in biotechnology, genomics and nano-technology and have the wealth to lead this by the mid 2030s. In stark contrast to the convenience and lifestyle craved by GenZ people in China, A.I. birth centers could be an aspect of the future in China.
“We all feel that modern urban life is becoming very convenient and welcoming to singletons, and that marriage and childbirth are almost synonymous with the stress of life for us young people.” - a GenZ woman in China (quoted in the SCMP).
While the Chinese researchers have proved that the technology could be used safely for the development of embryos, there are still legal obstacles in place that would prevent it from being used on human foetuses beyond two weeks of development (or so the official record goes).
Experimentation on human embryos, however, is still forbidden under international law. The team published?their findings?in the?Journal of Biomedical Engineering?in November 2021. In the paper, they detail an “online monitoring system” designed for the “long-term culture of embryos.”
The system could theoretically allow parents to grow a baby in a lab, thereby eliminating the need for a human to carry a child. I think it also points to a caste system of State-born kids who would not be necessarily adopted or attached to human pairs of parents. This is not a technology being developed to aid parents who decided to have children too late in their biological lives.
Technology Not Money is the Solution to China's Demographics Problem
China cannot easily fix the common prosperity or GenZ values shift problem. It cannot just throw?money at the demographics problem, but this could be a partial solution if it decided that was the best course of action.
We have to be realistic about how artificial intelligence will be implemented at scale. From training super soldiers, to creating military robots to even perhaps augmented humans grown in pods, eventually the biotechnology revolution will intersect with super-computer powered A.I. augmented with quantum computing. That is the future. It’s actually a very natural development in the arc of China’s neo-surveillance capitalism.
AiSupremacy is a Newsletter at the intersection of A.I. and breaking news.?You can keep up to date with the articles?here.
If you enjoy articles about A.I. at the intersection of breaking news join AiSupremacy?here. I cannot continue to write without community support.
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Design Strategist | Helping entrepreneurs Maximize their Business Outcomes
3 年I want the ai nanny to take care of me with 6 other trained security guards and tech people
working in a Industry at packforce
3 年But my self I love Australia from the first day I come to Australia I love it here.
working in a Industry at packforce
3 年Now I think China is very good and very strong I hope it it stays that way all time thanks
working in a Industry at packforce
3 年No
Senior Project Superintendent/Construction Manager at LCL Builds/GCL Builds with expertise in project management
3 年I would give big high five for the pictures of the article!, ??