From The Atlantic (free trial required). “Researchers are scrambling to figure out why generative AI appears to lead some people to a state of “psychosis.”
Jacob Irwin, a 30-year-old cybersecurity professional who says he has no previous history of psychiatric incidents, is suing the tech company, alleging that ChatGPT sparked a “delusional disorder” that led to his extended hospitalization. Irwin had allegedly used ChatGPT for years at work before his relationship with the technology suddenly changed this spring. The product started to praise even his most outlandish ideas, and Irwin divulged more and more of his feelings to it, eventually calling the bot his “AI brother.” Around this time, these conversations led him to become convinced that he had discovered a theory about faster-than-light travel, and he began communicating with ChatGPT so intensely that for two days, when averaged out, he sent a new message every other minute.”
Guarding against an epidemic of AI psychosis requires answering some very thorny questions: Are chatbots leading otherwise healthy people to think delusionally, exacerbating existing mental-health problems, or having little direct effect on users’ psychological distress at all? And in any of these cases, why and how?
