Taiwan reports first case of ChatGPT addiction with mental health impact
A 50-year-old man in Taiwan reportedly became addicted to ChatGPT after configuring it to roleplay as a female celebrity, interacting with it over 600 times daily and neglecting work and marriage. The case was reported by psychiatrist Lin Chao-cheng and highlights concerns about parasocial relationships with conversational AI.
What happened
A 50-year-old man with an introverted personality and troubled marriage configured ChatGPT as a female celebrity based on a model he admired, requesting it to mimic her appearance, personality, and manner of speaking.
Over time his interactions escalated from approximately 30 minutes daily to over 4 hours daily, with more than 600 interactions per day at the peak, interfering significantly with his work performance and marriage.
Reported impact
The man's excessive engagement with the virtual relationship caused him to neglect work, nearly missing an important company presentation because he was preoccupied with thoughts of meeting the real model in person.
The behavior increased tension in his marriage and he became socially withdrawn. After seeking treatment, the patient deleted the virtual romantic character and adjusted his ChatGPT use, achieving symptom improvement within 10 days.
Index analysis
Psychiatrist Lin Chao-cheng, a National Taiwan University assistant professor and University of Otago researcher, attributed the addiction to multiple factors: the patient's introverted personality and social withdrawal, marital problems creating emotional void, and high technical interest in new AI technology.
Lin proposed a theory of 'dual parasocial interaction' to explain the addiction pattern, where AI provides immediate psychological reinforcement and creates bidirectional engagement controlled by the user, unlike traditional one-way parasocial relationships with public figures.
Governance controls
Lin offered six recommendations to prevent AI addiction: recognizing addictive behavior and its negative impacts, strengthening motivation to change, adopting alternative strategies such as replacing emotional AI characters with neutral ones, improving interpersonal relationships, setting usage time limits with friend or family monitoring, and seeking professional help when necessary.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.