Featured essay

Turbulent, Alien, Addiction

Were you following the global AI news in late August and for September? A series of major events seemed to unfold on a near daily basis. Were we witnessing a key period in the extraordinary rise of artificial intelligence, perhaps a global reckoning for the technology? One comment reverberated, that of President Trump – “whoever wins AI, wins”.

However, alongside this story is a parallel one about AI conversational chatbots, and how they have been quietly shaping our psychological interactions. A story lurking within the one billion or more global users of chatbots.

On the 9th of September Elon Musk posted on X – “AI robots will more than double the global economy in less than 10 years.” Some two hours later a public bombshell dropped with the statement: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” So posted Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic (makers of chatbot Claude), who resigned from his job. Mr Coxon stated that the world’s leading AI companies are “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence” and “gambling with our lives”.

Days before the Coxon bombshell Jakub Pachocki, Chief Scientist at OpenAI, wrote his “An Alien Mind” blog post: “This is a time that calls for extreme caution” and “I am concerned no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence.” Jakub stated that “A very capable agent explicitly trained and instructed to carry out nefarious acts presents a new kind of danger”.

However President Trump took differing views – “I have concerns if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position”. He continued “We’re leading China on AI... and, frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.” He even went so far as posting: “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX”.

The Chinese public have been vociferous adopters of AI technology, especially when compared to Europeans and Americans. Yet late August brought the latest news of China’s countrywide legislation restricting the use of “anthropomorphic AI” companion chatbots for minors and adults. The government warned AI companies against promoting “emotional dependence or addiction” in users and offering services that “replace social interaction”.

A new Frontier?

Both Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT each recently boasted over one billion global users of their AI conversational chatbots and apps. A Gallup survey of Americans aged 14 to 29 found that 51% use AI weekly. Despite rising adoption, feelings of “anger and anxiety” about AI have increased year on year and now exceed feelings of “hope and excitement”.

Many people, particularly parents, may have breathed a sigh of relief after the record $18bn settlement with US states over claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children. Yet the increasingly researched field of AI chatbot addiction is being compared to social media and gaming addictions. Separately, why are fears for the impact on adolescents of AI chatbots being raised at The Paris Peace Forum and invoking the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Anthropomorphism – the psychological tendency to attribute human-like characteristics and behaviours to non-human entities – has been significantly studied in regard to technology and more recently AI. Trust, attachment and loneliness are also the focus for chatbot research.

What now? The threat of AI destroying humanity seems far more pressing than humans forming attachment or ultimately addiction with chatbots. However, in these critical times of trying to manage the global development of AI to humanity’s benefit, this surely cannot overshadow the separate risks emerging of psychological dependencies with chatbots.

This discussion is more widely explored in an upcoming essay to be released soon; do email me for advance notification.