Is there such a thing as democratic communism?

I don't think democracy and any kind of permanent ideology fit together. Maybe you can democratically elect a communist government if there's that option. But an election between two of the same ideology isn't really democracy and if you allow other ideologies it's not democratic communism anymore its just democracy

The AI stuff is kinda bullshit though. The world will change but probably not in a way anyone today can imagine and it doesn't *have* to go toward oppression.

There's something called democratic socialism which is quite different from Communism

i think it's safe to say communism doesn't work for a number of reasons.
democracy or republics have their issues but are a better alternative.

the question is not if communism can be combined with another system, but rather if there are ways we can make parts of existing systems more socialized. which is a sizable difference.

Have you read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist

Like some Socialistic Shangri La. That would be beyond awesome .

Is procreating to produce 20 non-adopted kids (in a world full of completely adoptable orphans) because you're in a cult actually a legit "need" of any individual though? If AI could prevent that, and maintain a more reasonable global population, and prevent the 0.01% apex predator species from degrading the planet for the other 99.99% of species on Earth, legit needs of that minority species would likely not be suppressed and the finite resources and other aspects of the planet would be back in balance and harmony.

I'm not sure a vast number of humans could recognize a legit need if it was tickling their face, but they have no shortage of wants.