How would we even go about measuring the net effect of smart phones?

A lot of us (myself included) probably feel like we spend WAY too much time looking at our phones. But then again, prior to the printing press, pretty much nobody looked at books. That change took longer, but comparing the amount of time a person in 1990 spent reading to somebody in 1300, it might feel like a pretty big shift, even an unhealthy shift. I'm sure that there's a case to be made that books have changed humans in inhuman ways.

So, yes, smart phones are unhealthy, but they also come with a lot of benefits (instant access to all the information on earth + ability to talk to anyone anywhere anytime + google maps + ...).

AI is probably gonna feel like smartphones in that it will seep into our lives way more than we are comfortable with.

Also, there's this: I don't know how to resist strong technological change. I spent a lot of the first few decades of my life resisting technology. But looking back now (from the vantage of the smart phone I'm clutching in my sweaty hands), it seems like my resistance was futile at best, wrong-headed at worst.