Behind the ChatGPT Hype: Are Its Suggestions Contributing to Addiction?

Abstract

ChatGPT has been a frequent topic of discussion lately. All over the Internet, from YouTube to blogs, there have been reports about how ChatGPT is able to plan people's daily activities, even for a whole month. However, what matters is what activities ChatGPT recommends. When ChatGPT was trained on a vast amount of data from the Internet, we wondered if it would suggest activities that can lead to addiction. In our test, not once did ChatGPT recommend an activity related to alcohol, drug use, or any other activity that can lead to addiction with serious health consequences. Suggestions seemed more like self-improvement posts on blogs than discussion forums where people might mention drinking in the evenings. Thus, if a person were to use ChatGPT as a personal lifestyle advisor, it does not appear on the basis of this test that ChatGPT would recommend activities that would be fundamentally detrimental to their health. However, more detailed long-term testing of similar tools is needed before recommendations for use in practice can be made.