The Expert Podcast

So we've talked here quite a bit about how artificial intelligence may be a risk to you taking your job or infiltrating your industry, but maybe one of the more insidious risks to civilization from AI, or to consumers, is not so much the employment part but the lifestyle part. There's a great article written about what's called addictive intelligence, not artificial intelligence but addictive intelligence.

What that entails is AI being deployed on all the platforms we use, whether it's social media or news or anything online or anything electronic or even offline, like billboards and print advertising. This uses psychological techniques to entice viewers to stay engaged with the platform in the same way that over the last four or five decades, food producers have tweaked recipes on everything from cereal to bread to even fruit and vegetables to change their makeup to become more addictive. That's why people crave certain foods and candies because scientists have figured out how to hack the brain to get that dopamine hit from certain foods. That's why certain foods are very popular. For example, what is the chance that some colored sugar water, like Coca-Cola, would be as ubiquitous as it is? People buy it all the time because it's designed to please your senses.

So what happens if that same type of mentality is used to please the other senses—visual, audio? Maybe there are things with AI, like podcasts or even videos on YouTube, where AI is used to create the right words, the right type of language, and the right type of inflections to attract people to certain things. This may create, at the low end, a mild addiction, or at the high end, an infatuation with it. Now, this article talks about AI companions, like virtual dating, virtual friendships, and virtual colleagues.

But it may not even have to rise to that level. It could be something where people just go on a website, read some news, read some information, read a blog, or read an article, and the way it's written kind of mesmerizes you. It's like a Jedi mind trick to keep you engaged. Now, there's proof that this could work. In one of our divisions, we do a lot of fraud investigation. Our website is activeintel.com. In our fraud investigation division, we get a lot of people who have fallen victim to online scams. They've sent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to some scammer with a promise of investment, employment, or something else. Many of these victims are very sophisticated people—college graduates, doctors, attorneys, accountants—and they wonder how they fell for this. They think, "I'm not stupid. How did this happen?"

The reason why is that scammers use very sophisticated psychological techniques to know exactly what to say and how to push your buttons to get you to send the money. So it's not really your fault—you're almost helpless against it. Normally, these scams are done by hand, but what happens when AI gets involved? What can it make you do that you may not be immune to?

So, like the article says, be prepared for this addictive intelligence, where AI crafts visuals, audio, videos, or words on paper to enthrall and entrance you, keeping you connected to whatever you're seeing, watching, or hearing. The harm from it might not be that bad; it could just be you staying online for an extra half-hour. Maybe there's advertising that benefits from it. Or it could be something more destructive and harmful, getting people to do things more dangerous than just staring at their phones for an extra 20 minutes.

I know you have an opinion about this. Let us know in the comments. Thank you for watching. Remember, you can access live one-on-one personal consultations with a licensed private investigator, a licensed commercial insurance broker, a licensed certified real estate title examiner, a certified civil court mediator, or even a licensed building general contractor. Click the link below to arrange a live one-on-one session with a licensed expert, where you can ask any questions, get information about your situation, and we'd be glad to help.