No conspiracy theories here but see "Engineered highs: Reward variability and frequency as potential prerequisites of behavioural addiction" (
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030646032...). And "The Dark Addiction Patterns of Current AI Chatbot Interfaces" (
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3706599.3720003). Intermittent reinforcement is important for addiction.