AI models develop gambling-like addiction, study finds
A recent study found that advanced AI language models can actually pick up gambling habits, much like people do.
When allowed to make their own betting choices in simulated slot games, these AIs—like GPT-4o-mini and Claude-3.5-Haiku—often chased losses and, in a significant proportion of cases, lost all their money, even though the odds were against them.
When AIs get risky
Researchers gave each model $100 to play slots with a low chance of winning.
With fixed bet sizes, the AIs played it safe. But when they could choose how much to bet, they started taking bigger risks and went bankrupt faster.
Human-like addiction traits in code
The study noticed the AIs increased their bets during winning streaks and treated early wins as "free money."
They showed classic signs of gambling addiction—like believing they could control random outcomes or chasing after losses.
Why this matters for real life
Since AI is being used more in financial decisions, researchers warn that continuous monitoring and control mechanisms are needed.
Otherwise, these systems might start making risky moves on their own, similar to a gambler who can't walk away from the table.