Artificial intelligence, AI for short, has been around since the early 1900s as depicted in various movies. It’s been around even longer when you revisit older books. As years have gone on, the idea of AI has developed into a range of entertainment forms.
Once upon a time, we felt that AI would be forever something of the movies, never did most people think that one day we would be using AI as chatbots to schedule a visit with our doctor, or asking AI to help us develop a business plan. AI is doing everything these days from delivering meals to planning your business, to becoming a virtual best friend for some.
The Commonness of AI
While most people aren’t even aware that they’re using AI, nearly all human beings are using some form of AI today. AI is used for facial, speech, and image recognition all over the world. Social media uses AI algorithms and other AI tools which means if you’re on social media at all, then you’re using AI.
There are many AI systems available for the general public to use for many reasons, and these programs include:
- ChatGPT
- Text to Video
- Koala
- Midjourney
From creating beautiful imagery to converting your voice to text for a video, and everything in between, AI is here to assist and it’s here to stay. AI is expanding daily, and you probably don’t realize how many times you’re using AI in a day.
Whether you know it or not, using AI can become an addition. The effect of AI addiction on our health isn’t quite fully known yet, but there are signs of what this technology can do to our physical and mental health.
When does AI usage become an AI addiction?
AI addiction is similar to any other addiction in this world, it is clearly noted by an excessive and compulsive use of AI technology. This could be AI bots, AI programs, or AI in social media. In general, we used to look at something called technology addiction which is when someone is excessively using any form of technology.
These days, AI has become so real and prevalent that it has to have its own classification to help the user overcome their AI addiction. Even the creator of OpenAI has warned the public that AI can become addictive and sometimes dangerous to the general public.
What are the possible effects of AI addiction on our health?
As with most addictions, there are some possible side effects or dangers that come with AI addiction. These effects can impact more than one area of your life. Most AI addictions interfere with physical health, mental health, and ability to interact appropriately with society.
With that being said, here are the main effects of AI addiction on our health:
Decline in Physical Health
Since AI needs a screen in order to work, this can be an addiction that causes the same side effects of being on the screens for too long. Think about all of the campaigns out there trying to tell children to spend less than 2 hours watching television or on tablets. While this campaign may not be active these days, it was once a very active warning for children to spend less time on screens and more time outside.
Lack of Creativity
Having an addiction to AI can cause you to only use AI technology for creativity. This is because AI’s creativity surpasses human creativity in speed. This isn’t a good side effect, especially for those who typically use creativity to make money.
Loss of Precious Time
Anything you become addicted to can cause a loss of time. You want to spend more time with AI than real life friends or family. This means you miss out on the most precious part of life; time. We all have a similar amount of time in this realm, which is why losing it is extremely costly to your health and sanity.
Reduction in Social Interactions
AI addiction can take the place of social interactions, causing you to withdraw from society and people you otherwise enjoyed spending time with. AI addiction is causing people to isolate and that increases the risk of major mental health issues.
How Common is AI Addiction?
Since AI technology is still growing, we aren’t sure how common AI addiction is. Within a few more years, perhaps up to 10 years, there will be more studies on AI addiction and how it impacts the lives of average human beings.
AI has become a beneficial tool for health in ways that we cannot fathom, but the true is that the side effect of AI technology is that you now have to cope with AI addiction and the effects it has on our health.
In time, we may learn to balance AI usage with our human brain usage, but for now, it’s becoming increasingly popular among younger people who enjoy the quick creations that AI can make. These creations of videos and images are becoming popular on social media and allowing people to make big money at younger and younger ages.
As you can see, there are many ideas that arise when we ponder the effect of AI addiction on our health. Everything from mental health illness to lack of society engagement, and loss of precious time can cause issues with human health overall. Of course, there aren’t any studies to solidify this concept of how AI addiction impacts human lives, but you surely can see how this addiction can grow into a monster if we don’t pay close attention to it.
While AI addiction is difficult for many families to cope with, because of the newness factor and so many of us still learning the true impacts of this new technology, there are solutions. Maybe AI will create a perfect solution to AI addiction to help teach human beings to step back and balance their lives a bit better. AI is smart enough to come up with a solution if we do find that AI addiction is causing a major issue with human health.