Macht KI süchtig? Studie warnt vor Risiken von Chatbots

A German overview of a study that analysed 334 accounts by chatbot users describing their own difficulties with use. Instead of a questionnaire with fixed categories — people’s texts in their own words, from which the researchers drew recurring patterns.

Three patterns of problematic use: immersion in role-play, in which the conversation becomes a world; emotional attachment, in which the bot is a friend or partner; and the compulsion to keep asking — the need to return for one more answer. Consequences as users themselves describe them: trouble at work and in study, financial loss, withdrawal from relationships.

The value of the entry: the language comes from the people concerned, not from researchers, and it is the language familiar from accounts of addiction. For personal use the warning is concrete — recognise one of the three patterns in yourself and it is no longer a tool. Caveat: a self-selected sample, so it says nothing about how common this is, only what shape it takes.