R0024/2026-03-25/Q002/H2

Research	R0024 — Sycophancy and Addiction
Run	2026-03-25
Query	Q002
Hypothesis	H2

Statement

No, the connection between social media addiction liability and AI chatbot liability has not been made — the two litigation tracks remain separate in legal discourse.

Status

Current: Eliminated

Multiple legal analyses explicitly combine the two liability tracks. The McGuireWoods analysis directly asks "Can Social Media or AI Be a Defective Product?" in a single analysis. The Character.AI litigation uses legal theories developed in the social media context.

Supporting Evidence

No evidence supports this hypothesis.

Contradicting Evidence

Evidence	Summary
SRC01-E01	Law firm analysis explicitly combining social media and AI defective product liability
SRC02-E01	AEI analysis drawing direct parallels between the litigation tracks

Reasoning

The evidence comprehensively eliminates H2. The two liability tracks are not separate — they share legal theories, regulatory frameworks, and in some cases the same defendant companies.

Relationship to Other Hypotheses

H2 is the null hypothesis and is eliminated by the convergent evidence supporting H1.