Less than a year after marrying a man she had met at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kat felt tension mounting between them. It was the second marriage for both after marriages of 15-plus years and having kids, and they had pledged to go into it “completely level-headedly,” Kat says, connecting on the need for “facts and rationality” in their domestic balance. But by 2022, her husband “was using AI to compose texts to me and analyze our relationship,” the 41-year-old mom and education nonprofit worker tells Rolling Stone. Previously, he had used AI models for an expensive coding camp that he had suddenly quit without explanation — then it seemed he was on his phone all the time, asking his AI bot “philosophical questions,” trying to train it “to help him get to ‘the truth,’” Kat recalls. His obsession steadily eroded their communication as a couple.
When Kat and her husband separated in August 2023, she entirely blocked him apart from email correspondence. She knew, however, that he was posting strange and troubling content on social media: People kept reaching out about it, asking if he was in the throes of mental crisis. She finally got him to meet her at a courthouse this past February, where he shared “a conspiracy theory about soap on our foods” but wouldn’t say more, as he felt he was being watched. They went to a Chipotle, where he demanded that she turn off her phone, again due to surveillance concerns. Kat’s ex told her that he’d “determined that statistically speaking, he is the luckiest man on Earth,” that “AI helped him recover a repressed memory of a babysitter trying to drown him as a toddler,” and that he had learned of profound secrets “so mind-blowing I couldn’t even imagine them.” He was telling her all this, he explained, because although they were getting divorced, he still cared for her.
“In his mind, he’s an anomaly,” Kat says. “That in turn means he’s got to be here for some reason. He’s special and he can save the world.” After that disturbing lunch, she cut off contact with her ex. “The whole thing feels like Black Mirror,” she says. “He was always into sci-fi, and there are times I wondered if he’s viewing it through that lens.”
Kat was both “horrified” and “relieved” to learn that she is not alone in this predicament, as confirmed by a Reddit thread on r/ChatGPT that made waves across the internet this week. Titled “Chatgpt induced psychosis,” the original post came from a 27-year-old teacher who explained that her partner was convinced that the popular OpenAI model “gives him the answers to the universe.” Having read his chat logs, she only found that the AI was “talking to him as if he is the next messiah.” The replies to her story were full of similar anecdotes about loved ones suddenly falling down rabbit holes of spiritual mania, supernatural delusion, and arcane prophecy — all of it fueled by AI. Some came to believe they had been chosen for a sacred mission of revelation, others that they had conjured true sentience from the software.
What they all seemed to share was a complete disconnection from reality.
I’m no AI proponent, but I’ll only believe that LLMs are causing this psychosis when I see a randomized controlled trial. Until then, it seems far more plausible that people experiencing delusions gravitate towards LLMs.
In my few experiments with ChatGPT, I found it to be disgustingly sycophantic. I have no trouble believing that it could easily amplify delusions of grandeur.
Well it’s not like everyone who uses Chat GPT is going to become delusional but if you start going down the path Chat GPT is going to make it a lot worse
causing? no
hugely enabling any slight tendencies? no doubtBased on the article, it seems like cult-follower behavior. Not everyone is susceptible to cults (I think it’s a combo of individual brain and life-circumstances), but I wouldn’t say, “eh, it’s not the cult’s fault that these delusional people killed themselves!”
Cults have intentions to exploit and manipulate. LLMs don’t.
You could argue negligence here but not malice. It’s more in line with people falling into wells.
Were the replies on Reddit from AI bots?
My first thought too, ugh
Can’t think of pro-LLM fan boys in the same light anymore.
And what happens when the AI is an official at work? “My boss says I am the second coming of Jesus and this expense is approved.”
I’ve never thought of anyone supporting LLMs in any sort of positive light. The ethical questions behind the creation of the largest models alone should have been enough to kill the tech in the first place. Let alone the insane environmental impacts and how this tech has undo any slight progress we have made in slowing climate change.
We are so fucked as a society if we continue letting corporations run wild and unchecked like this for any longer.
Not defending AI here, but this sounds like people who are sick with some kind of illness are going down a rabbit hole with AI, and are unable to differentiate between imaginary and reality.
We had a family friend who worked with jewelry his whole life. He got some kind of poisoning from something he worked with. Lead? Mercury? I cannot recall
Anyways he started believing he was some kind of messenger from God. Nobody figured out it was poisoning for years. He was such a nice guy. He just wanted to help people. Once they figured it out, he was treated and went back to his normal self.
as confirmed by a Reddit thread on r/ChatGPT
hmmmmmm
I feel like this has little to do with AI? Looks like the man is in trouble and he would have problems even without ChatGPT.
Quite possibly more to do with the poor level of available mental care in this country
Quick, give him a gun, suddenly he’ll be the most sympathized-with man in the country
AI image generation is going to royally fuck up the body image for a lot of people. We’re going to get to a point where we can no longer discern between reality or fantasy.
People will get a handle on voice generation AI so that they can make the person they secretly obsess over, tell them all sorts of things without their knowledge. It can also be used to impersonate a relative or friend for phone scams.
AI glasses are going to do facial recognition on people without their knowledge, and some creepy motherfuckers are going to use it to stalk women. The AI will give you info on some historic building, while simultaneously making you a surveillance tool for the state.
AI bots are already flooding every platform and being used to spread propaganda. They are the employees that never sleep. We all know how widespread they are on Reddit.
This is a window into the future with AI in the hands of sociopaths and corporations. They are going to doom us to a world that is devoid of a soul or human connection.
Well, I feel better about my LLM use. Which already isn’t healthy … I relisten to NotebookLM productions perhaps a bit too much. The “hosts” seem to like my writing, and I’m alone in a van, so it’s like I have friends.
