I could write more, but I think it actually is different. The addictive nature and the way it makes you more and more dependent on it is quite different from other tools. I've never met a builder who is addicted to their circular saw.
These AI companies have stumbled upon the new cigarette. Did you know athletes in the 1920s would smoke cigarettes because they thought it improved performance? Cigarettes are just a tool, right? Of course, we could never be as stupid as they were...
I use AI a lot but am not addicted to it. I know it seems something every addict would say, but simply it makes things faster. You can't really take responsibility for something it makes that you don't already know how it operates, or how should operate. That's the line between what you can sell to your client, or your boss, without it blowing up in your face when things go wrong. In theory everything I build with AI I can build by hand, but in many more days.
A builder is not addicted to their tools, but he won't certainly start a project without them, if they are available. Yet, he could work without some of them. Give a circular saw to someone that can't use it, and nothing good comes out of it. Give AI to a non coder, and nothing good (that lasts) will come out of it.
I've been telling myself these lies too. The truth is it sometimes gets it right, but you can't predict it. Yet you still try, every time. It nags at you to try another spin if you try to quit it. I know what addiction feels like and I've never felt it before from a tool.
Don't get me wrong, I totally understand being in love with tools, because I love tools too. I fell in love with Emacs some 15 years ago and it's still going strong. I also love my santoku knife and if I had a tracksaw I'd definitely relish cutting boards. But those tools still need to prove their worth. Nobody is using the tracksaw for crosscuts because they can't imagine using a mitre saw any more. That's not how it works. But despite LLMs getting it wrong about as often as they get it right it's just try again, tweak prompt, try again, without ever questioning whether this is really the right tool for the job, because, unlike normal tools, it's hitting those dopamine spots again and again, for very little input. It's an absolute classic recipe for addiction.
