INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

The extensive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in day-to-day activities has changed how young adults are looking for reassurance in health-related areas. This work looked at the connection between young adults searching for reassurance from AI and their cyberchondria (the belief that a serious health problem exists when there is no apparent cause) and their intolerance of uncertainty. The method used to collect these data was a quantitative cross-sectional comparative research design. The data were collected from young adults (18–25 years old) and included the Cyberchondria Severity Scale-12 (CSS-12), Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12), and a measure for classifying AI users into the two groups: high and low. The study found a statistically significant positive correlation between young adults seeking reassurance through AI and level of cyberchondria, as well as between intolerance of uncertainty and level of cyberchondria. High AI users reported significantly more severe levels of cyberchondria than low AI users. When gender was taken into account, it showed that females had greater cyberchondria than males, whereas the intolerance of uncertainty was not as pronounced by gender. These results imply that AI-facilitated reassurance seeking may represent a current- day "safety" behavior to continue anxiety cycles in young adults who are more prone to being uncertain. This study adds to the development of cognitive-behavioral frameworks in the realm of AI technology and contains information that relates to the implications of new digital technologies from a psychological perspective.

Keywords: AI reassurance-seeking; cyberchondria; intolerance of uncertainty; young adults; health anxiety; digital behavior