What’s More Addictive Than Tik Tok?
Here’s a quiz for you:
What app is stickier (more addictive?) than TikTok?
According to the Washington Post, “In September, the average user on the companion app Character.ai spent 93 minutes a day talking to one of its user-generated chatbots [...]. That’s 18 minutes longer than the average user spent on TikTok.”
Even before ChatGPT was released in November 2022, AI was already simulating intimacy. And the stickier (more addictive?) it is for the consumer, the stronger the business model is for the AI's owner.
What happens when some of those consumers are the students in our schools?
The article goes on to report, “Some frequent users of AI companion apps say safety concerns are overblown. They argue the apps are an immersive upgrade to the online experimentation young people have done for decades — from fan fiction on Tumblr to anonymous encounters in AOL chatrooms.”
But this is category confusion: At some point “more” becomes “different.” Giving it a euphemism like “immersive upgrade” doesn’t change that fact.
Consider the ways in which access to more information has not made us more rational or improved our decision making. In many ways, it has done the opposite. In a world of more data and more information, disinformation and misinformation flourish.
In the same way, access to unlimited simulated intimacy will not relieve students of loneliness, anxiety, or the other drivers of the need for real emotional intimacy.
Every teacher (and parent) needs sufficient AI literacy to understand the dangers of simulated intimacy. Do you want to brush up on your AI literacy about this topic? Check out this webinar on the dangers of anthropomorphizing AI from our friends at AI for Education.
You may also find helpful our “Weird Questions” report, which feels more relevant now than it did in March of 2023.
In AI, all schools are facing the most transformational technology since the public internet. By itself, technology is neither good nor evil—but it’s also never neutral, because the way we design and implement it has moral and ethical implications. You can count on us to continue to work on AI so that you can create the conditions for powerful learning at your school.
