Regarding AI's influence on human’s entertainment, report “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND LIFE IN 2030” lists many advanced technologies and innovative entertain approaches. The report also comes up with one concern about AI-driven entertainment: they may reduce people’s time spent on social interactions. This concern is indeed a considerable issue, but I would say there is a much larger threat: new entertaining approaches are causing psychological and neurological damages on human, especially the teenagers.

Just like some AI’s behaviors are driven by algorithms, human’s behaviors are driven by the rewarding system in their brains. In order to get the pleasure (mainly dopamine and other neurotransmitters) provided by the rewarding system, brain would lead us to make an effort to do what we are doing. For example, in order to get the pleasure of “getting an A”, we would conscientiously spend time writing essays and review materials. And only after contributing a large effort can we enjoy the pleasure. Simply thinking about “I want to get an A” does not guarantee an A and would not generate any pleasure. 

Before The Age of Information, the distance between thinking about “get an A” and getting an A in reality is long. It is impossible for someone to make his thoughts come to real in instant time. Even the popularity of game play machines didn’t change this system. One can say”I want to play game boy”, but in rare cases can that guy get a game boy just in seconds. In most circumstances, he or she have to come back home or make some other efforts to enjoy the pleasure.

However, the emergence of smart phones and portable smart phone games changed everything. Nowadays, smart phones can be equipped with really interesting games which can be activated seconds after users open their phones. After thinking about “I want to play Clash of Clans”, it only takes someone two actions to fulfill this wish: grab the phone out of the pocket, and open the app. The distance between thinking of a pleasure and getting that pleasure has been extremely shortened. 

This kind of instant pleasure has a notorious influence on our brains. To start with, excessive instant pleasure would produce more dopamine than the brain need to maintain its function. In order to reach a balance between dopamine and other substances, brain would start a self-rebalance—reduce the production of dopamine. In long runs, this phenomenon would reduce the over-all dopamine concentration in the brain and thus decline brain performance. The low dopamine level also leads to more smart-phone playing, which forms a vicious circle. This mechanics is just the same as how some narcotic drugs destroy brains.

On the other hand, pleasure is no longer something hard to get nowadays. Just by pulling out our phones from pocket brings some pleasure. We no longer need to spare no effort to fight for rewards. Our inborn ability to postpone pleasure and plan for the future would shrink due to lack of reinforcements. The “will power” which helps us strive for achievement could also be weakened. For teenagers, they may find that pleasure provided by AI-driven entertainment to be sufficient for their needs. The meaning in working and studying might be doubted by them and causes a reduction in overall performance.

This phenomenon is not limited to smart phone games. Facebooks, Instagram and even some online study websites would unintentionally produce environments for instant pleasure. Furthermore, the development of decision-making AI may reduce more human efforts in the future. It would be dangerous to ignore this problem.