The promise of AI is everywhere, but that promise also portends peril. The problem with AI is that it doesn\u2019t always give us what we want because of the way it\u2019s applied. It\u2019s a tool, not a panacea for everything, everywhere, all the time.<\/p>\n
Most people use AI as an answer engine\u2014asking questions, generating lists, filling the gaps in research, and the like. Used properly, generative AI<\/a> prompts are a series of instructions that build upon one another to create an outcome. Therein lies the issue at hand.<\/p>\n Enter Intermittent Reinforcement<\/p>\n To review, intermittent reinforcement is when an action receives a reward, but that reward is random, not guaranteed. In the case of AI, we often fall into the trap of putting something out there\u2014what, in AI-speak, is called a \u2018prompt\u2019\u2014anticipating a concrete return (read: reward). The thing is, generative AI doesn\u2019t work that way, because it relies on three things: the database(s) upon which it draws, the decision tree parsing the information in those databases, and, most importantly, context. Hence, intermittent reinforcement.<\/p>\n To put a finer\u2014and Skinner-informed\u2014point on it, we keep pressing the bar, waiting to get what we expect. The problem is that expectation is misplaced, because it\u2019s not based in cause and effect, and can lead to a cycle of compulsive dependence. Simply put, we keep pressing the bar\u2014or writing, re-writing, and re-writing the prompt\u2014waiting for that reward.<\/p>\n Generative AI as a Category of Addiction<\/p>\n When we begin to think about AI as a prospective category of addiction<\/a>, we need to consider addiction as compulsive dependence. Blending the notions of intermittent reinforcement with compulsive dependence, we find ourselves down an almost inextricable rabbit hole. Not getting what we want, we keep shaping the prompt and clicking the mouse until we get some approximation of our needs met, while likely not getting what we are genuinely seeking, but, nonetheless, accepting some approximation. Then we do it again\u2026and again, and again, and again.<\/p>\n In some ways, addiction is simple. We engage in some behavior that \u2018alters\u2019 us\u2014deflecting stress<\/a>, or mood, or whatever else we find less than tolerable\u2014and that has a physical impact, whether the immediacy of alcohol<\/a>, or substances, or the less tangible, hormonally-informed responses associated with gambling, shopping, or sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n In any event, we still land on intermittent reinforcement leading to compulsive dependence. Substances don\u2019t last\u2014so, the attendant \u2018fix\u2019 doesn\u2019t last\u2014and we keep on keeping on; returning to our panacea of choice in order to escape that which ails us, whether determinate or indeterminate.<\/p>\n