[kfarr]

This seems to be touching on an intriguing concept from a classic book on addiction with machine gambling (Addiction by Design by Natasha Schüll)

Instead of looking at gambling addictions as personal failing she asserts they are a result between “interaction between the person and the machine.”

Similarly here I think there's something more than just the propensity of crazy people to be crazy that was already there, I do think there's something to the assertion that it's the interaction between both. In other words, there's something about LLMs themselves that drive this behavior more so than, for example, TikTok.

[just_once]

It's the fact that it talks to you. Before this, only people did that. Now something else is doing it. That's going to break some brains.

[moi2388]

I’m calling bullshit. Gambling addiction existed long before machines.

[kfarr]

Totally, the book acknowledges this and provides comparison on usage and explanation of how gambling types differed over time. One of my favorite books ever, it describes social media right before social media became a thing but through the lens of a parallel industry.

[moi2388]

Ah. In that case, that sounds interesting indeed. I’m going to read it, thank you for the clarification!