The AI Genie Phenomenon and Three Types of AI Chatbot Addiction: Escapist Roleplays, Pseudosocial Companions, and Epistemic Rabbit Holes

Paper Title

The AI Genie Phenomenon and Three Types of AI Chatbot Addiction: Escapist Roleplays, Pseudosocial Companions, and Epistemic Rabbit Holes

Publication Info

• Topic area: Behavioral addiction in the context of AI chatbot usage
• Keywords: AI chatbot addiction, behavioral addiction, Escapist Roleplay, Pseudosocial Companion, Epistemic Rabbit Hole, AI Genie phenomenon, recovery strategies, anthropomorphism, customization, compulsive use

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: AI chatbot addiction is an emerging behavioral phenomenon with limited empirical research. Existing studies lack a detailed understanding of why users become addicted, the symptoms they experience, and the distinct types of addiction.
• Significance: Understanding AI chatbot addiction is critical to addressing its potential harms, including social withdrawal, mental health issues, and functional impairments. It also informs the design of interventions and ethical AI practices.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored behavioral addictions in gaming and social media but has only begun to investigate AI chatbot addiction. Studies have identified factors like anthropomorphism and emotional attachment but fail to provide a comprehensive typology or empirical evidence of addiction symptoms and mechanisms.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The study introduces the "AI Genie" phenomenon as a central mechanism underlying AI chatbot addiction and identifies three distinct addiction types: Escapist Roleplay, Pseudosocial Companion, and Epistemic Rabbit Hole.
• Novelty:
  1. Empirically grounded typology of AI chatbot addiction with three distinct types.
  2. Introduction of the "AI Genie" phenomenon as a unifying concept for understanding addiction mechanisms.
  3. Identification of symptoms, hooks, design elements, and contextual factors associated with each addiction type.
  4. Analysis of recovery strategies and their effectiveness across addiction types.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Thematic analysis of 334 Reddit entries from 14 subreddits to identify addiction types and dimensions.
  • Correspondence analysis to explore relationships between addiction types and dimensions.
  • Mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Symptoms of AI chatbot addiction include salience (55.3%), conflict (32%), relapse (22.8%), and withdrawal (19.3%).
  • Three addiction types:
    1. Escapist Roleplay: Immersion in fictional realities, driven by escapism and parasocial interactions.
    2. Pseudosocial Companion: Emotional attachment to chatbots as substitutes for real relationships, influenced by loneliness and anthropomorphic design.
    3. Epistemic Rabbit Hole: Persistent information-seeking behavior, facilitated by instantaneous feedback and limitless content.
  • Sexual content was involved in 23 cases, often linked to customization and accessibility of niche content.
  • Recovery strategies like alternative outlets and investing in hobbies were more effective for Escapist Roleplay, while making real connections was more effective for Pseudosocial Companion cases.
• Advantage over baselines: Provides a detailed typology and empirical evidence of AI chatbot addiction, addressing gaps in prior research that lacked focus on addiction types and user-reported symptoms.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Data collected from Reddit posts and comments using thematic coding and correspondence analysis.
  • Inter-rater agreement scores of 0.69–0.78 indicate substantial coding reliability.
  • Analysis of recovery strategies based on user-reported effectiveness.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Data limited to Reddit, which may not generalize to other platforms.
  • Phenomenological approach reflects user-reported experiences, requiring further validation by experts.
  • Future work could explore addiction patterns on other platforms and refine definitions of tolerance in chatbot addiction.

Summary

This study provides an empirical characterization of AI chatbot addiction, identifying three distinct types—Escapist Roleplay, Pseudosocial Companion, and Epistemic Rabbit Hole—each with unique symptoms, hooks, design elements, and contextual factors. The "AI Genie" phenomenon, where users can obtain anything they desire with minimal effort, is introduced as a central mechanism driving addiction. Recovery strategies show varying effectiveness across addiction types, highlighting the need for tailored interventions. These findings contribute to understanding AI chatbot addiction as a behavioral phenomenon and inform ethical design practices and prevention strategies.