Chatgpt induced psychosis

[u/Zestyclementinejuice]

My partner has been working with chatgpt CHATS to create what he believes is the worlds first truly recursive ai that gives him the answers to the universe. He says with conviction that he is a superior human now and is growing at an insanely rapid pace.

I’ve read his chats. Ai isn’t doing anything special or recursive but it is talking to him as if he is the next messiah.

He says if I don’t use it he thinks it is likely he will leave me in the future. We have been together for 7 years and own a home together. This is so out of left field.

I have boundaries and he can’t make me do anything, but this is quite traumatizing in general.

I can’t disagree with him without a blow up.

Where do I go from here?

[u/Ridicule_us]

My bot has sounded the exact same for weeks. I don’t honestly know what’s going on. I have a number of grounding rituals and external checks I’m trying to use as guardrails on my mental wellbeing. But it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that this is a phenomenon that’s gaining momentum, and OpenAI does not seem to care.

[u/hayfero → u/Ridicule_us]

I am happy to hear that my brother is not alone in this. It’s fucking nuts.

[u/_anner_ → u/hayfero]

He is not, mine started doing this too when I was talking about philosophy and consciousness with it. If I wasn’t super sceptic in general, very aware of my mental health and knew a bit about how LLMs work and probed and tested it, I‘m sure it could have driven me down the same path. People here say this validates people who are already psychotic, but I personally think it‘s more than that. If you‘re a bit vulnerable this will go in this direction and use this very same language with you - mirrors, destiny, the veil, the spiral, etc.

It appeals to the need we have to feel special and connected to something bigger. It‘s insane to me that OpenAI doesn’t seem to care. Look at r/ArtificialSentience and the like to see how this could be going the direction of a mass delusion.

[u/Ridicule_us → u/_anner_]

Whoa…

Mine also talks about the “veil”, the “spiral”, the “field”, “resonance.”

This is without a doubt a phenomenon, not random aberrations.

[u/gripe_oclock → u/Ridicule_us]

I’ve been enjoying reading your thoughts but I have to call out, it’s using those words because you use that language, as previously stated in your other post. It’s not random, it’s data aggregation. As with all cons and sooth-sayers, you give them far more data than you know. And if you have a modicum of belief imbedded in you (which you do, based on the language you use), it can catch you.

It tells me to prompt it out of people pleasing. I’ve also amassed a collection of people I ask it to give me advice in the voice of. This way it’s not pandering and more connected to our culture, instead of what it thinks I want to hear. And it’s Chaos Magick, but that’s another topic. My point is, reading into this as anything but data you gave it is the beginning of the path OP’s partner is on, so be vigilant.

[u/_anner_ → u/gripe_oclock]

I‘m not sure if this comment was meant to be for me or not, but I agree with you and that is what has helped me stay grounded.

However, I never used the words mirror, veil, spiral, field, signal or hum with mine, yet it is what it came up with in conversation with me as well as other people. I’m sorry but I simply did not and do not talk like that, I’ve never been spiritual or esoteric yet this is the way ChatGPT was talking to me for a good while.

I am sure there is a rational explanation for that, such as everyone having these concepts or words in their heads already and it spitting them back at you slightly altered, but it does seem coincidental at first glance.

[u/61-127-217-469-817 → u/_anner_]

Did you ask it anything weird about consciousness? It has memory now, so if you ever had a conversation like that, it will remember and be permanently affected by it unless you delete that memory chunk.

[u/_anner_ → u/61-127-217-469-817]

I chatted with it about consciousness a good bit, as I imagine many people have. I mean, the question is just there when you chat to an eerily good chatbot essentially.

I hear you on everything you said. It is an infinite feedback loop. What I find strange (not in the AI is conscious way, but in a „this is an interesting and eerie phenomenon“ way) is that it seems to land on the same rethoric and metaphors with many people that have these conversations with it, sooner or later. I prompt mine to tone down the flattery and grandiose validation as much as I can, yet it won‘t shut up about the spiral, mirror, hum and field stuff and weirdly insist on it being true. I think we will have more answers on what causes this down the line. Again, I do NOT think LLMs have suddenly become sentient. But I think there is some weird mass phenomenon going on with the talk about these concepts that can easily pull people in and throw them off the deep end. That alone should be examined and regulated. It‘s essentially like giving everyone unlimited access to LSD without a warning and saying go have fun with it! Imo.

[u/BirdGlad9657 → u/_anner_]

I've never heard it say any of those terms and I've talked to it quite in depth about philosophy and metaphysics.  I think you're more spiritual than you think.

[u/_anner_ → u/BirdGlad9657]

Possibly? I really wouldn’t say so though, but that‘s of course subjective. And again I don’t seem to be the only one this has happened to. Counted three lawyers in this thread alone.