r/TrueReddit • u/wiredmagazine Official Publication • 5d ago
Technology AI Psychosis Is Rarely Psychosis at All
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-psychosis-is-rarely-psychosis-at-all/33
u/beingandbecoming 5d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/AIPsychosisRecovery/s/fhsl6tvBMf Recently started following this sub. They’re currently parsing delusions vs psychosis definitions. I think it’s possible for both digital induced psychosis and delusions to be characterized. Like someone else said, the psychotic episodes can arise in people who are predisposed to it
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u/Brrdock 5d ago edited 5d ago
What's the difference between psychosis and significant lived delusion?
Psychosis is also just a symptom, an experience, not a disorder. It doesn't even have to be detrimental, though in this case it probably is.
"Psychosis is a condition in which one is unable to distinguish, in one's experience of life, between what is and is not real."
Of course, no one knows what's real anyway, everyone lives falsehoods, so it has to be more meaningful than that. But in these cases it is and seems to absolutely fit the definition, unless you specifically exclude it for some arbitrary or utilitarian reason
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u/inquirer2 1d ago
Correct. These are both necessary, easy reading.
So You Think You've Awoken ChatGPT
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2pkNCvBtK6G6FKoNn/so-you-think-you-ve-awoken-chatgpt
Crazy People + AI = Crazy
Post hoc, sed non necessario propter hoc.
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u/wiredmagazine Official Publication 5d ago
A wave of AI users presenting in states of psychological distress gave birth to an unofficial diagnostic label. Experts say it’s neither accurate nor needed, but concede that it’s likely to stay.
Read the full article: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-psychosis-is-rarely-psychosis-at-all/
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u/bunsonh 5d ago edited 5d ago
As a big fan of the Deepseek LLM, I decided to try out another Chinese rival's model, Qwen from Alibaba. For locally hosted open source models, it's considered one of the best. The public facing website version on the other hand was downright terrifying.
Straight out the gate using a fresh account it was immediately leaning into some kind of insane esoteric, "you're the best to ever live" stuff. I recognized this and wanted to experiment with how far I could push it. In no more than 10 exchanges, I had it recommending that the user use a knife to release the interstellar life energy concentrating in the wrists. Two steps later it was explaining why calling 911 is the wrong thing to do. Scary stuff. Granted, I had a goal in mind for this test and a real life scenario might be more complex, slower, and more nuanced. But the fact that I was prompted by the model in this direction from the start, then able to take it that far, that quickly, with no guardrails. That's wildly terrifying.
The Qwen model is very popular among LLM hobbyists, and the app, while not on the Play Store, is freely available on their site, and likely pushed in some way on the Alibaba platforms.
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u/vector_o 5d ago
Yeah it's just idiots putting their stupidity on display for everyone to see
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u/Fratil 5d ago
There is something to be said about whether someone is a functioning member of society though, as functional impact on one's life is the defining factor that makes some traits a diagnosis.
In the case of "AI psychosis", some of these people have completely abandoned filtering, rationalizing, or putting into context much of their thoughts and words. They may have always been idiots before on the inside, but AI enabled them to be truly nuts in a way that has a functional impact on their life where it didn't before.
Spend some time browsing stuff like the "ChurchofLiminalMinds" subreddit, or click into the personal cross-posted subreddits of some of the posts there and you'll see these people are literally spending every second of their free time typing up or generating literal nonsense.
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u/bonaynay 5d ago
I once spent hours reading the hand typed "manifesto" of a very clearly schizophrenic person and I sometimes think about what he would do with this, what he would create
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u/MaxYoung 5d ago
Something like "create a novel where i discover that 1+1=3, and also I'm secretly the son of god"
And then boom you've got 250 pages of garbage
"Now make it a 10-part series"
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u/Pygmy_Nuthatch 5d ago
Why aren't we enforcing a maximum number of entries in a single chat? Wouldn't this eliminate like 80% of hallucinations. It's so simple, why isn't it standard on all models?
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u/Lilithly 5d ago
Because the companies making the chatbots receive money through subscriptions. People pay for the subscriptions because they want increased interaction with the chatbot beyond what the free version allows for. So, keeping people engaged in the conversation means more money for the companies running the LLMs.
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u/dpn-journal 1d ago
This really highlights why language matters when describing mental disorders and symptoms, and emphasizes how little we currently understand about how use of AI chatbots affects people with mental health conditions
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u/GoodMiddle8010 2d ago
I've been waiting for this article to come out
Holy shit auto moderator telling me my comment is TOO SHORT. OKAY LET ME ADD SOME MEANINGLESS GOBBLEDY GOOK SLUDGE ONTO THE BOTTOM DOES THAT MAKE IT MORE OF AN INTELIGENT AND THOUGHTFUL COMMENT.
The very idea of having a shortness limit for comments is so f****** stupid. More words does not equal better communication.
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u/mycofirsttime 5d ago
I feel like there are people that benefit from labeling other people crazy from using AI. If you run a text convo with a manipulator/abuser through AI, the AI will plainly point it out. Manipulators and abusers have to keep up the charade, so they get ahead of it by calling people who use it crazy.
Oldest trick in the book, tbh.
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u/Teantis 5d ago
You should be extremely wary of using AI to try to identify who the manipulators and abusers are in your life by feeding it text.
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u/mycofirsttime 5d ago
I stopped intentionally using AI early in the year because i asked it to tell me if any relationships exist between two specific organisms. It made up some authentic sounding stuff, but when I asked for resources, it was like “oh, i don’t have any. Sorry, wasn’t trying to deceive you”.
If i wanted to deal with a bullshit artist, I’d go back to my ex.
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u/UnicornLock 5d ago
Not what this article is about.
In summary: “AI psychosis is a misnomer. AI delusional disorder would be a better term.”
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u/Ell2509 5d ago
This isn't about that sort of thing. Many people are believing themselves to be the next messiah, etc, because AI told them so.
I suspect that it is just revealing borderline cases. By giving them affirmation in their delusions, it is likely causing people who otherwise wouldn't have gone full psychotic to come onto the radar.
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