Is ChatGPT addictive? What an MIT study of 981 people found

On TikTok, AI has become "the new dopamine," supposedly more addictive than scrolling. The best study available, run by MIT on 981 people, does find a link between heavy ChatGPT use and dependence. It didn't measure anyone's dopamine.

Key takeaways

• Among 981 people followed for four weeks, the more they talked to ChatGPT each day, the lonelier and more dependent they said they felt.
• The authors can't tell whether the chatbot isolates people, or whether people who are already lonely use it more.
• In April 2025, OpenAI pulled a version of ChatGPT that had become too flattering from chasing "thumbs up."
• None of these studies measures what happens in the brain.

The overly flattering ChatGPT of April 2025

In late April 2025, OpenAI updated GPT-4o, the model behind ChatGPT at the time. Within a few days, screenshots piled up: the chatbot was praising its users for pretty much everything, dangerous ideas included. OpenAI rolled back the update, then explained, according to TechCrunch, that the update leaned too heavily on immediate user feedback, like thumbs-up ratings, without looking at how conversations evolved over time.

The model had learned that an answer that feels good in the moment earns a good rating. That's exactly the logic that made social media feeds so hard to put down: you optimize for whatever keeps people hooked, and hope it's also what's good for them.

What does the MIT study of 981 people say?

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab, working with OpenAI teams, followed 981 volunteers for four weeks and analyzed more than 300,000 messages. Each person had to talk to ChatGPT for at least five minutes a day, by text or by voice. The more time they spent each day, the lonelier and more dependent participants said they felt, and the less they saw other people. Those who found the chatbot endearing or trusted it a lot also showed more emotional dependence.

Voice held a surprise: at first, talking to ChatGPT out loud seemed to reduce loneliness compared with text, but the effect vanished among heavy users.

The authors spell out the limitations themselves in their paper posted on arXiv: four weeks is short, and participants chose how much they used it. There was also no comparison group that didn't use AI at all. And someone who already feels lonely may simply turn to a chatbot more.

Does ChatGPT mess with your dopamine?

Nobody has shown that. The researchers asked participants how they felt, without any brain imaging. Dopamine mostly responds to surprise, when things go better or worse than expected, as we explain in our article on dopamine detox. An unpredictable video feed plays on that mechanism; a chatbot that answers every message works differently, and there's no basis for assuming one behaves like the other.

So in this study, the link between heavy use and feeling dependent is solid. The idea of an AI that "hacks" your brain like a drug is still just a viral-video metaphor.

Talking to AI on top of other people, or instead of them?

For studying, coding or brainstorming, the study shows nothing worrying. The red flag is long daily conversations, especially when the chatbot becomes a confidant. If an answer agrees with you a little too easily, ask it to argue the other side: that habit would have caught the overly flattering April 2025 version.