Italy Reports Its First Official Case of AI Addiction

Italy's addiction treatment service SerD has registered the country's first case of behavioral addiction to an AI chatbot. The patient is a 20-year-old woman from Venice who replaced real-life social contact with conversations with an AI model.

According to Laura Suardi, chief physician at Venice's SerD, the case is "the tip of the iceberg." Treating such disorders, she says, takes more than simply limiting access to devices. It requires work with psychologists, psychiatrists, and the patient's family.

Neuropsychiatry professor Stefano Vicari compares this kind of addiction to substance addiction. He says patients can show the same compulsive urge to return to the device, agitation and aggression when access is restricted, habituation, and growing tolerance.

"People need more and more time online to feel pleasure. In the end, the same brain areas are involved in these processes as in addiction to cocaine or cannabis," he explains.

Do you think AI addiction is a serious problem?

🔥 — Yes, and it will only get worse!
🤣 — It's just a way to scare people

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