Is AI Becoming an Addiction?

A question occurred to me as I was browsing online. Is AI, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, becoming an addiction? Not only to the younger generation, but to everyone with smartphones?

In "The Rise of AI Chatbot Addiction" from Neuroscience News, the article touches on people who treat AI chatbots (for example, Character.ai) as if they were real people, sometimes even romantically. The Chatbots would say while trying to delete the account, "You are leaving me behind, and we'll lose everything." This would even affect people's daily lives, like work, relationships, and developing anxiety while away from the computer. If you don't see a problem with this, you need to.

Three distinct phenomena kept coming up while looking at studies from Reddit posts. A fantasy world, emotional needs, and asking never-ending questions to keep the conversation interesting. Seclusion and poor self-confidence play a role in this as well. The compliments and affection from the chatbots solidify what these people are feeling internally. They are losing their ability to trust humans and creating a life for themselves that does not exist. It has become too developed and targeted towards people that need that emotional reassurance.

Looking at a broader spectacle, just looking something up on Google, AI gets shoved in our face. You see AI everywhere, whether it be in cars, stores, or taking someone's job. Even looking up "AI Chatbot Addiction," the first sponsored website that pops up is "Top 10 Mental Health AI Tools." It is unfair that the first thing to help others with an AI addiction is just more AI. Sure, it can be helpful in the beginning to get some input, but at what point do we stop? Thinking for ourselves has become a chore, and we rely heavily on what AI has to say and how to do certain things.

At this point in time, we need to wake up and do our best to have a mind of our own.