Elon Musk compares TikTok to an 'obvious AI attack' because it's so addictive

Elon Musk has compared social media app TikTok to an “obvious AI attack”.

The SpaceX and Tesla boss made the remark in response to a comment from Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s Director of AI.

Taking to Twitter, Karpathy remarked: “TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack. First time I feel attacked by AI in the brain.”

Musk responded: “TikTok feels like such an obvious AI attack that it’s annoying.”

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He added: “I prefer to be attacked by AI with subtlety – maybe a rose, some candles, wine, Barry White, witty banter, that sort of thing …”

Some Twitter users responded to the thread to say that they avoid the app as it’s too addictive.

One user said: “I avoid TikTok like I avoid crack and for the same reasons. Although avoiding TikTok is more difficult. I don't have friends constantly sending me links to crack.”

Musk responded to this tweet with a laughing emoji.

Others shared screenshots displaying how much time they’ve spent on the app:

The app is well known for how addictive it is, and how quickly its algorithm gets to know a user’s likes and dislikes.

This isn’t the first time the app has been compared to an addictive drug.

In a 2020 Forbes article titled Digital Crack Cocaine: The Science Behind TikTok’s Success, USC Professor Julie Albright said the app is addictive in the same way a Vegas slot machine is addictive.

Albright said this is called “random reinforcement” because as you scroll, sometimes you see something that gives you a dopamine hit, and other times you don’t.

It’s been made known that the app curates a user’s For You Page based on behaviour such as likes and comments, but an internal document seen by the New York Times reveals that retention and watch time are also optimised in a bid to boost its daily user count.

One thing’s for sure - it’s dangerous to open the app if you plan on doing anything productive within the next couple of hours...

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