AI Isn’t Just Smart, It’s Addictive
PRO-AI PERSPECTIVE
If fear created one side, obsession created the other.
Welcome to the Pro-AI side.
Honestly, I think all people that overuse AI know not to. Don't copy and paste, don't give it private information, don't over-rely. These warnings are quickly overlooked because of the ease and access of AI, reaffirming the three areas of fear discussed in my previous piece.
It is too easy to use AI, but why are people becoming obsessed?
The Truth Behind AI Obsession
There are psychological reasons for why people became so quickly addicted to AI that are not solely due to convenience or easy access. Awareness of them is the first step to understanding how to utilize AI without reaching this obsession level and lack of balance.
3 main areas feed into AI obsession and make it easy to fall into.
Dopamine (Feedback Loop & Hyper-Personalization)
Novelty
Curated Identity
Science Lesson!
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that regulates your brain's reward systems. Your brain releases dopamine with those pleasurable experiences, training your body that it should be repeated to feel this way again. Dopamine also spikes when you anticipate a reward or pleasurable experience, causing people to chase or think about said activity more often. Addiction occurs when your brain is repeatedly hit with dopamine, something that social media and AI are recently creating quite often.
Now let's dive into dopamine, novelty, and identity and how each feed into obsession.
GENERAL FEEDBACK LOOP: Micro-rewarded experience → Dopamine burst → Continued use or repeated action → Dopamine burst → Reinforced behavior, continued cycle, and positive association with the experience
CHAT GPT FEEDBACK LOOP: You ask ChatGPT a question → get a surprisingly good result → you ask more often → start using it for more areas of life.
1a. Dopamine and the Feedback Loop
Feedback Loop → Dopamine → Obsession
Modern technologies "drugify" our online experience by constantly providing micro-rewards through social media interactions, positive outcomes, affirmation, and personalization. AI tools trigger dopamine-driven scenarios that create addictive feedback cycles. Your brain continues to go to AI because it gives you quick, positive answers with virtually no energy or effort input, creating this feedback loop of dopamine.
Over time, this loop leads to:
Increased use and patterns: one more search, one more scroll
Craving and dependency on the tool
Reduced tolerance for tools/processes that do not give the quick and easy dopamine burst
1b. Dopamine and Hyper-Personalization
By using your own thoughts and interests to create personalization, users become addicted to the sense of ease and understanding that comes with AI. When the tailored response aligns with and predicts perfectly what you like, think, and question, your brain perceives it as a pleasurable experience, triggering a dopamine burst. You reinforce your engagement for AI because of the encouraged repeated use and association with dopamine.
Due to the hyper-personalization, users start to develop:
Emotional attachment: it understands and knows me
Sensitivity to friction or cognitive load: users seek reduced effort in their processes, developing irritation with tools that require more than a prompt to properly respond
Quick frustration when AI tools can't do it and require you to do it on your own
Impatience with “imperfect” technology: feeling that they are outdated platforms
Reduced tolerance for tools/processes that do not offer such personalized experiences
“Your behavior trains the system, and the system shapes your behavior.”
PubMed Central | ScienceDirect | Nature Neuro | PNAS
2. Novelty
Novelty-seeking is a biologically wired trait. In the digital age, this instinct shifts to what is common in our lives: constant software updates, launches, and trends.
Dopamine: Novelty triggers a surge in dopamine and the feedback loop to search for newer innovations. When a tool constantly refreshes, our brains keep chasing that next fix. This forces companies to create innovation more often to trigger the same buzz and dopamine release. AI fuels this perpetual obsession with constant upgrades & new models and features.
Funding: Today, everyone is always searching for and finding the new thing: trend, product, tech. This bias to novelty drives funding and comfort. AI is the thing now, backed by startup funding hitting $162.8 billion in the first six months of 2025. Now, as also seen by the over 90k AI companies and 10k AI startups, the pressure to adapt this novelty tech is high.
We are becoming more desensitized to novelty because of how constant it is.
False Sense of Discovery: Tools do not even necessarily need to be useful but mainly new and AI-branded. This entire process creates a false sense of discovery, showing you what is new to you but not actually to the world or company. This algorithm feeds the reinforcement of staying within the AI tool to experience novelty and those dopamine trigger.
3. Identity and Social Badges
It has become a social status amongst professionals. Saying that you utilize AI gives badges of relevance and proactivity.
Badges:
Job Success: Surveys reveal that 1/3 of executives plan to include AI skills in performance reviews and hiring decisions. Jobs are also offering a 28% higher annual salary and 56% wage premium (largest reward in the workforce) for those who demonstrate AI skills.
Status and Relevance: AI creates a strong sense of identity and confidence for being ahead of the curve or above others who are unfamiliar with it. It provides a status and relevancy safety net for not falling behind in this rapidly evolving economy. The showcasing of AI fluency has also become a status marker on LinkendIn, resumes, and websites.
Control and Appeal: AI mastery gives people a sense of control due to higher professional confidence and status. Employer demand for AI/ML has increased 334% since 2020, allowing those who know AI skills to appear more desired or appealing. Psychologically, using a novelty tool often evokes competence and adaptability due to its link to hiring success and upward mobility.
Adopt AI with Intention and Awareness, Not Impulse
Reality check: Anyone can become obsessed and over-reliant on it. Learn where the benefits and opportunities are, along with how to best tailor it to your life.
Notable Positives from AI
Added Value: Morgan Stanley in Business Insider projects AI could add $13–$16 trillion in value to the S&P 500
Efficiency: Tech Radar explores how AI could help enterprises successfully transition to a four-day workweek
Skill Gap: The 2025 Stanford AI Index Report confirms that AI not only boosts productivity but also helps narrow skills gaps across the workforce
This marks the end of the AI Series: Two-Party System - Anti-AI versus Pro-AI. Learning and growing in awareness allows us to step away from two extremes of fear and obsession to properly utilize and balance AI tools.
Upcoming
GEO Series: Generative Optimization Engine (changes in search never slow down)
Reach out with how you might apply this to your life or any feedback and thoughts this piece sparked.
