China's AI girlfriend crackdown took effect, and the goodbye posts read like obituaries. Plus RAM prices double and Stop AI's founder is missing.

On July 15, China became the first major jurisdiction to regulate AI companions: no engineering emotional dependence or addiction, no virtual partners for minors, mandatory notification of a user's emergency contact when the platform detects an emotional crisis, government review before a companion chatbot launches, and authority to take down bots deemed dangerous. Customer service bots, work assistants, and study aids are carved out. Hunter Powers and Daniel Bishop go through the rules one by one, and Daniel, who built crisis-detection software for the After School app years before anyone said "AI companion," keeps catching himself agreeing with them. The shutdown set off real grief on Chinese social media, users archiving chat histories and posting final messages to their AI lovers, including one about falling in love with a string of code. The United States is circling the same questions: California and New York companion laws now require chatbots to periodically remind users they are not human, and a Common Sense Media study found about three in four American teens have tried an AI companion.

Then the missing person. Sam Kirchner, electrical engineer and co-founder of Stop AI, disappeared after telling fellow activists "the ship may have sailed on nonviolence." His own comrades called the San Francisco police. Is anti-AI violence becoming a trend? The guys weigh the evidence: shots fired at an Indianapolis councilwoman's home beside a note reading "no data centers," and the Molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman's house.

Finally, the question every PC builder is asking: why is RAM so expensive now? The world's memory supply is effectively pre-bought through 2028 by AI data centers, a build that was half the price six months ago now runs fifteen grand, and prices are projected to double again. New York is pausing new data center permits while proposals there ask for 9,000 megawatts, a third of the state's annual usage. Elon Musk says space data centers launch by the end of the year. Daniel expects time to vindicate him.

They Might Be Self-Aware is the AI podcast from The Blur, reported from inside the dissolving line between human and machine, not from a safe distance.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold Open (Gary's Intro)
2:29 China's AI Girlfriend Crackdown
9:08 AI Girlfriend Grief in China
10:33 US AI Companion Laws
13:34 AI Lover Goodbye Quotes
18:19 Stop AI Founder Missing
20:47 Anti-AI Violence Trend
24:22 Musk's Space Data Centers
25:33 RAM Prices Double
29:19 Sign-Off

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COMMENT
Be honest: would 13-year-old you have talked to the endlessly complimentary chatbot? Hunter says it wouldn't have messed him up. Make your case.

You're listening to They Might Be Self-Aware, from The Blur.
New episodes Monday and Thursday.

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