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

2026-01-19

AI Summary

This study addresses the current lack of systematic understanding of addictive behaviors associated with AI chatbot use. Through qualitative thematic analysis and exploratory data mining of 334 user narratives from Reddit, it introduces the novel concept of the “AI genie” phenomenon and identifies three distinct patterns of addiction: escapist role-playing, parasocial companionship, and cognitive rabbit holes. The findings reveal that these patterns align with established addiction theories, feature a high prevalence of sexual content, and demonstrate significant differences in responsiveness to intervention strategies. These insights provide a theoretical foundation for precise identification and tailored interventions, advancing the conceptualization of AI-mediated behavioral dependencies.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Procedural Content Generation & Storytelling
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Artificial General Intelligence

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Content-based information diffusion

Abstract

Recent reports on generative AI chatbot use raise concerns about its addictive potential. An in-depth understanding is imperative to minimize risks, yet AI chatbot addiction remains poorly understood. This study examines how to characterize AI chatbot addiction--why users become addicted, the symptoms commonly reported, and the distinct types it comprises. We conducted a thematic analysis of Reddit entries (n=334) across 14 subreddits where users narrated their experiences with addictive AI chatbot use, followed by an exploratory data analysis. We found: (1) users'dependence tied to the"AI Genie"phenomenon--users can get exactly anything they want with minimal effort--and marked by symptoms that align with addiction literature, (2) three distinct addiction types: Escapist Roleplay, Pseudosocial Companion, and Epistemic Rabbit Hole, (3) sexual content involved in multiple cases, and (4) recovery strategies'perceived helpfulness differ between addiction types. Our work lays empirical groundwork to inform future strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and intervention.

Problem

• AI chatbot addiction
• AI Genie phenomenon
• Escapist Roleplay
• Pseudosocial Companion
• Epistemic Rabbit Hole

Innovation

• AI Genie Phenomenon
• AI chatbot addiction
• Escapist Roleplay
• Pseudosocial Companion
• Epistemic Rabbit Hole