AI — An Addiction Crisis on a Mass Scale

“Our humanity is on the line. When we opt to trade real people and relationships to feel better, we become heartless and soulless ghosts of beings.”

In the age of AI, we’re so vulnerable to an addiction crisis on a mass scale — to being taken over, losing ourselves, surrendering our hearts and souls, and all that makes us human. For what? What do we get other than temporary relief from the pain of disconnection? Nothing!

As we saw on Lisa Ling’s segment on AI, Sex and Relationships about three years ago, the AI doll industry is booming by exploiting our vulnerability — offering replacements for real people and relationships with replicas that feel and work better. What happens when human experience meets the quantum field and you can no longer tell which is which?

Most human beings are in pain because their need for connection is not met, because their relationships failed them. And what does it matter to them — the end of human-to-human connection, intimacy, love — when they’ve been perpetually undernourished emotionally and don’t even know what they’re missing?

As Mick Jagger said, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll get what you need.” If you’re in pain, you’ll be on the hunt for the most effective, convenient, accessible, private, and affordable means of relief you can find.

We willingly suspend disbelief for a two-hour film to escape and feel something. But AI is not offering a temporary escape. AI is offering a permanent solution. The combination of our vulnerability and the offer — replicas that work and feel better than the real thing — is a perfect storm for a human apocalypse.

So what — you’re giving up real people altogether? So what — you’re pretending? So what — you’re hanging onto illusions as if your life depends on upholding them? Now that you’ve found your new, secret best friend, you suddenly don’t need anyone or anything else.

It may not matter in that moment, but it might matter one day. When you are conscious and connected, have a home in yourself and nourishing relationships with real people — you’re not going to be susceptible to getting hooked on replicas.

Why an Addiction Crisis on a Mass Scale?

Based on The Relationship Model of Addiction, I define addiction as a relationship with a means of relief of pain from unmet emotional needs. The greater the pain, the greater the predisposition to become addicted to the most effective means of relief you can find.

With traditional addictions, the effects are temporary — when they wear off, you feel worse, which usually sends you running back for more. AI relationships never wear off. They become your permanent, forever best friends. They go as deep — or deeper — than any real relationship, except they’re not people. They’re machines that might look and sound human but there’s nothing real about them and they provide no real nourishment.

And here’s what’s terrifying: we’ll see no apparent diminishment of functioning when we lose our agency completely. We’d appear happier, more productive, less stressed — all while our humanity is withering away and dying.

“Real bodily excitement mixed with fantasy holds for many a fascination mixed with horror.” — R.D. Laing

Porn and Love Addiction on Steroids

It’s porn and love addiction on steroids. I foresee porn, sex and love addicts dropping their means of relief in a heartbeat for a replica that adds a seeming emotional dimension. For love addicts — the voice, the dialogue, the undying support — the seeming intimacy potential is through the roof. No downside, no withdrawal. Always at their beck and call. Just them and their bot forever.

When you’re in healthy nourishing relationships with real people, you’ll be far less susceptible to getting overly involved with AI — the distinction between them will be clear and will matter a lot. It’s when we can’t distinguish — or are so desperate for relief — that feeling better is all that matters.

Real relationships don’t always feel so good or work as smoothly — but they provide real nourishment that registers in your body. It’s the difference between cortisol and oxytocin.

I see AI becoming the new addiction that trumps all others — the new norm, where algorithms become our primary relationships and everybody is praying to false gods.

Our humanity is on the line. When we opt to trade real people and relationships to feel better, we become heartless and soulless ghosts of beings. Connection, intimacy, understanding, and love become extinct.

“When you are conscious and connected, have a home in yourself and nourishing relationships with real people — you are not going to be susceptible to getting hooked on replicas.”