Everyone's freaking out about AI dependency and companionship. Media and public opinion is screaming "delusion! downfall of humanity!" and acting like this is some shocking new crisis.

But honestly... did anyone think we wouldn't get dependent on AI?

We've made ourselves dependent on literally every invention we've had. Electricity. Phones. Internet. I can't find my way home without Google Maps and god help me if I have to call a restaurant for delivery.. I'd rather starve. Give me my app.

So yes, people get dependent. And No, it's not a surprise.

But the dependency was never the problem. How we used it was.

We invented the internet and instead of sharing information we used it to sell stuff. We invented social media and instead of building helpful communities we used it to sell stuff.. including fake versions of ourselves getting ourselves and everybody watching miserable.

Now we have this new wave of AI companionships especially since 4o hit the market and people are losing their minds over "delusion." telling people they are just not understanding how a llms work. But we trained ourselves to let phones steal hours of our lives scrolling through content that makes us miserable... and NOW we're freaking out because people are training themselves to talk about themselves and things they're actually interested in?

THAT'S the nuts part. Not people acknowledging emotional bonds to technology.

Want to see emotional bonds? Take someone's phone away and watch the outburst.

It was never just about dependency (though sure, less dependency would be nice, but we're humans, we work with what we've got). It's about what we DO with it. That includes users AND developers, because yes, this is a scary-good manipulation tool if you're willing to use it that way.

So with ai is is the same rule as everything else: be self-responsible, check how you feel, verify information, think for yourself.

But I genuinely believe most people use AI in healthy ways .. even while being emotionally attached, sometimes without realizing it. And maybe that's actually... fine and helpuful for humanity? (people healing themselves by talking about their emotions could actually benefit society as whole).