GoKawiilRobert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR Internal documents show that Microsoft wants to ‘make people addicted’ to its new Scout AI assistant.
Scout is an agentic tool that can complete various tasks on your behalf.
This language comes amid heightened scrutiny over AI dependency.
People have grown increasingly reliant on AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini. In fact, it’s not uncommon to hear about people being glued to their AI chatbots for even the most mundane reasons. Now, it turns out that addiction is a very deliberate goal for one major company’s AI assistant.
Microsoft has just announced Scout, a new agentic AI assistant powered by OpenClaw. However, internal documents uncovered by 404 Media show that the company explicitly wants to “make people addicted” to the service.
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The internal documents include a subheading titled ‘ClawPilot Overall Plan.’ ClawPilot was the name of Scout prior to its launch. There are three phases under this subheading, with the first one titled ‘Make people addicted.’ 404 Media reports that the other phases see Scout/ClawPilot connecting to more AI services, as well as gaining new features.
“We’re seeing more and more addiction happening with AI chatbots and agents and overall addiction to me is something no product should be making a part of its build strategy,” an unnamed Microsoft employee told the outlet. “It feels like one of those ‘saying the quiet part out loud’ moments in the document.”
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