Can AI Help Solve Smartphone Addiction?

Source: Ariana Huffington/Thrive Global

Do you bring your mobile device with you wherever you go, including your bed at night? How long can you go without using or checking your phone? One media mogul is making moves to help people form healthier habits. In October 2019, Thrive Global Founder and CEO Arianna Huffington entered the artificial intelligence (AI) neurotech space with the acquisition of Boundless Mind.

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines addiction as a chronic disorder that can lead to brain changes in the pre-frontal cortex and limbic system regions involved in judgment, impulse control, reward, memory, and motivation. Addiction can be triggered by substances such as alcohol and drugs, as opposed to non-substance behavioral addictions such as gambling. Smartphone addiction would be considered a behavioral addiction.

Using a smartphone often does not necessarily mean one has an addiction. But there is no doubt that the devices promote frequent usage. In the United States, 81 percent of Americans go online at least once daily, eight-in-ten adults go online daily, and 28 percent go online almost constantly according to a Pew Research Center 2019 survey. The same survey reports that adult Americans with mobile connectivity are highly likely to be online frequently as well—out of the 86 percent of Americans who access the internet at least occasionally with a mobile device, an overwhelming majority of 92 percent go online daily.

In the United Kingdom, 65 percent use the phone while in bed before going to sleep, and 45 percent check the phone if they wake up in the middle of the night, according to a 2018 YouGov survey.

“I have been obsessed with Boundless since I first came across them on 60 Minutes two and a half years ago (when they were known as Dopamine Labs),” wrote Huffington in Thrive News. “I loved the fact that they were using the same technology designed to hook people to social media and gaming to instead unhook us, and help drive us to more healthy habits. I know it sounds paradoxical, but the truth here is paradoxical. We’ll never be able to change behavior at scale if we don’t use all of the tools in our toolkit, including the most cutting-edge technology.”

Boundless Mind, Inc., formerly Dopamine Labs, was founded in 2015 by neuroscientists T. Dalton Combes and Ramsay Brown with headquarters in Venice, a beachfront area that is part of Los Angeles, California. Boundless applies neuroscience and AI machine learning to adapt and personalize applications for each user in order to increase user retention.

“We are at a crossroads in our relationship with technology — and the advent of artificial intelligence is only accelerating the urgency to put humanity at the center,” wrote Huffington in the acquisition announcement. “We will have technology that either augments our humanity or undermines it. We’re also at a crossroads when it comes to health: we need to move beyond disease care to a world where we go upstream, with preventive, behavior-based interventions that help individuals around the world live healthier and more productive lives.”

Copyright © 2019 Cami Rosso All rights reserved.