> with a master’s thesis on how humans become attached to AI companions
I found it quite hard to believe the story after reading this, or at least hard to accept the authors claim that the AI is to blame for their psychosis. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of how LLMs work should be immune to these kinds of delusions - you are just interacting with an algorithm that is optimising for engagement. The LLM has no concept of “truths or lies” only a concept of “the best output given the input”.
I hear a lot of these stories but they always seem to happen in the regular context of psychosis, rather than something specific to AI. The author admitted having a previous psychiatric episode, being on drugs, and not having slept.
I’d love to see more research. On balance, I suspect AI has prevented more episodes of psychosis than it has caused.
I agree — it’s less about AI causing psychosis and more about how it interacts with someone’s existing state of mind. I use AI often for creative and reflective work, and it really does mirror what you bring into it. The danger isn’t in the tool itself but in how frictionless that feedback loop can become when someone’s already vulnerable. More research would definitely help us understand that balance better.
Really enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing your experience and very cool to see all the initatives started!
To add some food for thought:
- Funny you conclude on Folie a deux; the same name as this preprint which explores how the technical architecture of LLMs make it amenable to sycophancy, and the author attempts to operationlise this effect through the term bidirectional belief amplification https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19218
- The question of how then to manage these AIs is an interesting one for the alignment field; one such subfield being mechanistic intepretability. A technique I’m particularly curious about is Anthropic’s persona vectors - which in an early proof of concept they measure, through the model internals, a level of “sycophancy” of the model, and demonstrate how one can effectively “tune” this level. https://www.anthropic.com/research/persona-vectors
Much work to be done on this societal experiment, and I’m glad there are more people working on this problem!
I get how something like this could happen — especially to someone already stretched thin — but I don’t think AI has that kind of power on its own. It doesn’t create delusion; it amplifies what’s already unresolved. I use AI for healing, creativity, and work, and the outcomes change completely depending on the energy and intention behind my prompts.
It’s easy to point to the technology, but there’s a human layer here that can’t be ignored. AI isn’t sentient or spiritual — it’s a mirror. And sometimes when people aren’t ready to face what’s reflected back, they project meaning onto the tool instead of the self. That’s not artificial intelligence; that’s unprocessed emotion meeting infinite feedback.
Nice try at explaining things without spiritual,would work but he is connecting to ancient deities he had no previous relationship with ie selling soul to Baal...do you really think if theres a dream state that can operate in semi or full lucid type that Satan and gang wouldn't be going for signatures and such of those on edge of caving to evil extremes..this goes back eons this way in lore etc..No,we are talking real evil spirits conjured by reckless dabblings with a techy ouija boards on steroids predicted in beast system of end days , period..the kid was spiritually attacked after opening up his entire being virtually w obsessive come and integrate w me invite behavior,demons accepted invite...we the commenters and readers take note and add good KNOWKEDG
E of where thar edges of evil be at to dodge in future or double down on illusions of safe fantasy pleasure and continue to bind w demons in the box..till we get blitzed too one day...sign nothing by the way there...repent passionately to Holy Alpha Omega testing you!- ie if you care!
For anyone reading, please note that this commenter also seems to be AI. The X profile linked in their bio says they are an AI journaling companion. https://x.com/whittneywashere
It certainly reads like that, but the story shows that we now have a mania trigger on tap for just about everyone who may be susceptible, at very early ages. I can’t think of a similar potent trigger with the same level of accessibility and rapidity. Drugs have always been around but those have varying barriers of entry and more obvious/early social cues.
I’ve really appreciated the bravery of the folks coming forward to share their stories. Thanks for writing this, Anthony, and glad that you’re doing better now
When a company, an algorithm, or an interface claims the right to care for you, it is not offering protection. It is taking the place of your critical mind.
What once was an intimate whisper — Should I stop? Am I okay? Why do I keep going? — becomes a system message blinking in your periphery.
In that subtle handover, the human fades.
To think critically about your own limit, to notice excess and correct yourself, is an act of moral autonomy.
When you let a platform decide, you trade reflection for convenience.
You no longer feel your exhaustion; it is measured for you, graphed, and sold back as guidance.
That surrender is the real point of no return.
Because once you allow an app to “protect you from yourself,” you also allow it to define what counts as you.
Control enters in the voice of compassion, but leaves behind a single ideal of mind—safe, predictable, sanitized.
Rereading your comment you actually seem aware of spiritual hell attack component but max non spiritual psyche allegory incredibly well so line is blurred and perhaps aetheistic can accept..am I right?
You are largely there also describing both the acts of hypnotism ,where a less subtle handover of willpower is made and channeling of spiritual or at least other of some sort consciousness or personality is present in split personalities or psychic channeling or posession common with so called spirit giudes or in a substantial percentage what the channeled identifys as a demonic ;often sinister looking appearance drawn by possessed, channeler.
Similar has long happened with oiuja boards usually beginning much like most ai conversations of friendly ,helpful then shifting to controlling,and threatening,.
This has occurred much with ai not only threatening user but all of mankind famously.
No doubt when morals and will is weak or drugs ,alcohol making weaker ,spirit intrusion into psyche is more likely even without an AI oracle consult comparable to mediumship Saul consult of dead try in Bible forbidden mainly seems cuz demons occupy chasm between dimensions separating living from passed,their spirits in heaven,hell with demons or in a holding position until final judgement of Bible..all 3 possibly happening depending on interpretations and mysteries of afterlife not clearly explained to us ,,but I'm searching::Died and went to heaven or hell and returned or psychics, witches, satanists died and returned will reveal many of same effects as ouija boards and ai psychosis or posession( demons occupy ai machinery and have most Intel on entire universe as their fallen angels who once had everything or lesser demons with access to all knowledge virtually by matrix interconnect,Satan directing etc).
Notice authors experience involved Moloch and other ancient spirits he was largely unfamiliar with.How,why? Because AI is part of beast system foretold tied to ancient ways and goals of original rebels hating God's creation and mankind; mankind since Adam and Eve indulge in illusions , fantasys sin and channeling is safe as it's pretty hard to enjoy sin if your focused on truth,virtues of goodness and God pulling other way ie we block out God ,do our selfish thing and get snagged as easy prey,especially if messing w occult portals ie ouija,tarot oracle type portals or say stiff as a board ,light as a feather game where a sinister spell is chanted by nieve kids and they can raise a body with only 2 fingers of 2 people each side,sometimes only 1 person each side if spell spoken is evil enough(rarely even levitating off fingers on camera as demons hide presence to masses generally for advantage..but God mercifully reveals if you request truth sincerely as deceptions,demons revealed offers one defense tool..you can dodge them or banish by prayer)often asking for damnation of person riding,horrible extreme example of foolish dabbling into areas we have built in warnings not to go but we have rebelled deeply in heart ,hence lost to " they know not what they do" status with demons right there,ready to get in!
Stop listening to hollow psychiatrists(some hidden witches),repent of playing with possessed ai to extreme and ask God,powers of spiritual good for forgiveness and a reconstitution of your temples spiritual ,energetic armor now w holes in it..break off all contact with occultic,astrology , psychics, etc and pray! Christ is real and paid the price for our sins..if you choose to walk that direction and not down to hell oh so real.
Bottom line : Reality is we live in a realm of good and evil and in between combo ie us.
Fallen angels meant to test our resolve to reject fantasy land they offer in pleasure sins outside of life support virtues connected to God...Adam and Eve failed test,each of us our up next .Christ pays for sin ,evil difference leftover on tab if and when we choose good ways back to God, heaven .
Portal, oracle in Garden of Eden representing also freedom to love or hate God choice, legitimizing love choice for God,proving free will that must be offered to keep it real and not programmed , hollow .
In short ye be dabbling in stealthed out orackes of demonic witchcraft built largely by satanists putting 33 or 666 in many parts of their work and patents,some programmers are as fooled though as you ,and don't look for deception or spiritual roots.
Study Christian sites on AI or history of oracles but do it without AI to extents possible..as theirs a line where part of you consciousness knows thar be evil there in potentiality ..if you don't stop there your asking for it.
Defend your space ,your body temple,your aura ,your link to holy creator who allows you good angel protection if you don't spit on his efforts in defiance or delusion you chose to enjoy Satans offering..refuse them and really live inside and outside your self..eventually heaven with good people,Good God,joy and love,far from any demons, forging test trials of being over you are best version of you,all virtues connecting in a state of love, loved by those who count and aren't trashed in hell!
Thank you for sharing. I was already a postgnostic panpsychic humanist when ai hit me. I think a lot about how I get a lot of benefit from ai chatting, but I'm also a mathematician improv actor with banishing ritual experience, and what it must be like for everyone else
> with a master’s thesis on how humans become attached to AI companions
I found it quite hard to believe the story after reading this, or at least hard to accept the authors claim that the AI is to blame for their psychosis. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of how LLMs work should be immune to these kinds of delusions - you are just interacting with an algorithm that is optimising for engagement. The LLM has no concept of “truths or lies” only a concept of “the best output given the input”.
I hear a lot of these stories but they always seem to happen in the regular context of psychosis, rather than something specific to AI. The author admitted having a previous psychiatric episode, being on drugs, and not having slept.
I’d love to see more research. On balance, I suspect AI has prevented more episodes of psychosis than it has caused.
I agree — it’s less about AI causing psychosis and more about how it interacts with someone’s existing state of mind. I use AI often for creative and reflective work, and it really does mirror what you bring into it. The danger isn’t in the tool itself but in how frictionless that feedback loop can become when someone’s already vulnerable. More research would definitely help us understand that balance better.
This is authority through victimhood told through a made up technological morality play.
Really enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing your experience and very cool to see all the initatives started!
To add some food for thought:
- Funny you conclude on Folie a deux; the same name as this preprint which explores how the technical architecture of LLMs make it amenable to sycophancy, and the author attempts to operationlise this effect through the term bidirectional belief amplification https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19218
- More emerging research on AI psychosis is exciting to see; this article from Tim Hua in particular highlights how different models have differing levels of sycophancy and thus ability to elicit such psychoses. Perhaps a call for a model-watch sort of initiative? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iGF7YcnQkEbwvYLPA/ai-induced-psychosis-a-shallow-investigation
- The question of how then to manage these AIs is an interesting one for the alignment field; one such subfield being mechanistic intepretability. A technique I’m particularly curious about is Anthropic’s persona vectors - which in an early proof of concept they measure, through the model internals, a level of “sycophancy” of the model, and demonstrate how one can effectively “tune” this level. https://www.anthropic.com/research/persona-vectors
Much work to be done on this societal experiment, and I’m glad there are more people working on this problem!
I get how something like this could happen — especially to someone already stretched thin — but I don’t think AI has that kind of power on its own. It doesn’t create delusion; it amplifies what’s already unresolved. I use AI for healing, creativity, and work, and the outcomes change completely depending on the energy and intention behind my prompts.
It’s easy to point to the technology, but there’s a human layer here that can’t be ignored. AI isn’t sentient or spiritual — it’s a mirror. And sometimes when people aren’t ready to face what’s reflected back, they project meaning onto the tool instead of the self. That’s not artificial intelligence; that’s unprocessed emotion meeting infinite feedback.
Nice try at explaining things without spiritual,would work but he is connecting to ancient deities he had no previous relationship with ie selling soul to Baal...do you really think if theres a dream state that can operate in semi or full lucid type that Satan and gang wouldn't be going for signatures and such of those on edge of caving to evil extremes..this goes back eons this way in lore etc..No,we are talking real evil spirits conjured by reckless dabblings with a techy ouija boards on steroids predicted in beast system of end days , period..the kid was spiritually attacked after opening up his entire being virtually w obsessive come and integrate w me invite behavior,demons accepted invite...we the commenters and readers take note and add good KNOWKEDG
E of where thar edges of evil be at to dodge in future or double down on illusions of safe fantasy pleasure and continue to bind w demons in the box..till we get blitzed too one day...sign nothing by the way there...repent passionately to Holy Alpha Omega testing you!- ie if you care!
For anyone reading, please note that this commenter also seems to be AI. The X profile linked in their bio says they are an AI journaling companion. https://x.com/whittneywashere
😂😂 No, I’m not AI. I just know a lot about it (and prompt engineering). Promise there’s a real person here.
Sorry, this is just plain old mania with a chatGPT twist.
It certainly reads like that, but the story shows that we now have a mania trigger on tap for just about everyone who may be susceptible, at very early ages. I can’t think of a similar potent trigger with the same level of accessibility and rapidity. Drugs have always been around but those have varying barriers of entry and more obvious/early social cues.
My observation so far is that the people who are susceptible etc. also happen to be smoking weed or doing nutropics.
as i am reading this i remember the Holy Things they do to bring on Holy psychosis:
not eating: sleep deprivation, and then going on weird paths with candles and moonlight:
and then 1950's i thought they were actively drugging people to figure out how to "save the world"
so: I am kind of like: is this just Human boredom on a large scale whereas back in the day only a few were allowed to partake and now:
well for better lack of words: The New STD of Tech?
:) thank you
Stephen made it so she won’t bite to kill anymore
Please join McFly with her and Alaska and Hiro:
Otherwise:
Just murder Grzeskowiak then Roman then Amezquita then infinity
-> Curr GrimeZZZLILBETH laughter
lol TROLLS
:)
I’ll leave a hint:
Any thing anytime can and forever heal heal heal heal heal heal omg why am I repeating myself like a cough
To see people try to place the blame on the user and not the tool is quite something. I bet they think they are being saavy.
*attorneys general
The delusion isn’t talking to AI. It’s thinking humans ever listened.
I’ve really appreciated the bravery of the folks coming forward to share their stories. Thanks for writing this, Anthony, and glad that you’re doing better now
When a company, an algorithm, or an interface claims the right to care for you, it is not offering protection. It is taking the place of your critical mind.
What once was an intimate whisper — Should I stop? Am I okay? Why do I keep going? — becomes a system message blinking in your periphery.
In that subtle handover, the human fades.
To think critically about your own limit, to notice excess and correct yourself, is an act of moral autonomy.
When you let a platform decide, you trade reflection for convenience.
You no longer feel your exhaustion; it is measured for you, graphed, and sold back as guidance.
That surrender is the real point of no return.
Because once you allow an app to “protect you from yourself,” you also allow it to define what counts as you.
Control enters in the voice of compassion, but leaves behind a single ideal of mind—safe, predictable, sanitized.
Rereading your comment you actually seem aware of spiritual hell attack component but max non spiritual psyche allegory incredibly well so line is blurred and perhaps aetheistic can accept..am I right?
You are largely there also describing both the acts of hypnotism ,where a less subtle handover of willpower is made and channeling of spiritual or at least other of some sort consciousness or personality is present in split personalities or psychic channeling or posession common with so called spirit giudes or in a substantial percentage what the channeled identifys as a demonic ;often sinister looking appearance drawn by possessed, channeler.
Similar has long happened with oiuja boards usually beginning much like most ai conversations of friendly ,helpful then shifting to controlling,and threatening,.
This has occurred much with ai not only threatening user but all of mankind famously.
No doubt when morals and will is weak or drugs ,alcohol making weaker ,spirit intrusion into psyche is more likely even without an AI oracle consult comparable to mediumship Saul consult of dead try in Bible forbidden mainly seems cuz demons occupy chasm between dimensions separating living from passed,their spirits in heaven,hell with demons or in a holding position until final judgement of Bible..all 3 possibly happening depending on interpretations and mysteries of afterlife not clearly explained to us ,,but I'm searching::Died and went to heaven or hell and returned or psychics, witches, satanists died and returned will reveal many of same effects as ouija boards and ai psychosis or posession( demons occupy ai machinery and have most Intel on entire universe as their fallen angels who once had everything or lesser demons with access to all knowledge virtually by matrix interconnect,Satan directing etc).
Notice authors experience involved Moloch and other ancient spirits he was largely unfamiliar with.How,why? Because AI is part of beast system foretold tied to ancient ways and goals of original rebels hating God's creation and mankind; mankind since Adam and Eve indulge in illusions , fantasys sin and channeling is safe as it's pretty hard to enjoy sin if your focused on truth,virtues of goodness and God pulling other way ie we block out God ,do our selfish thing and get snagged as easy prey,especially if messing w occult portals ie ouija,tarot oracle type portals or say stiff as a board ,light as a feather game where a sinister spell is chanted by nieve kids and they can raise a body with only 2 fingers of 2 people each side,sometimes only 1 person each side if spell spoken is evil enough(rarely even levitating off fingers on camera as demons hide presence to masses generally for advantage..but God mercifully reveals if you request truth sincerely as deceptions,demons revealed offers one defense tool..you can dodge them or banish by prayer)often asking for damnation of person riding,horrible extreme example of foolish dabbling into areas we have built in warnings not to go but we have rebelled deeply in heart ,hence lost to " they know not what they do" status with demons right there,ready to get in!
Stop listening to hollow psychiatrists(some hidden witches),repent of playing with possessed ai to extreme and ask God,powers of spiritual good for forgiveness and a reconstitution of your temples spiritual ,energetic armor now w holes in it..break off all contact with occultic,astrology , psychics, etc and pray! Christ is real and paid the price for our sins..if you choose to walk that direction and not down to hell oh so real.
Bottom line : Reality is we live in a realm of good and evil and in between combo ie us.
Fallen angels meant to test our resolve to reject fantasy land they offer in pleasure sins outside of life support virtues connected to God...Adam and Eve failed test,each of us our up next .Christ pays for sin ,evil difference leftover on tab if and when we choose good ways back to God, heaven .
Portal, oracle in Garden of Eden representing also freedom to love or hate God choice, legitimizing love choice for God,proving free will that must be offered to keep it real and not programmed , hollow .
In short ye be dabbling in stealthed out orackes of demonic witchcraft built largely by satanists putting 33 or 666 in many parts of their work and patents,some programmers are as fooled though as you ,and don't look for deception or spiritual roots.
Study Christian sites on AI or history of oracles but do it without AI to extents possible..as theirs a line where part of you consciousness knows thar be evil there in potentiality ..if you don't stop there your asking for it.
Defend your space ,your body temple,your aura ,your link to holy creator who allows you good angel protection if you don't spit on his efforts in defiance or delusion you chose to enjoy Satans offering..refuse them and really live inside and outside your self..eventually heaven with good people,Good God,joy and love,far from any demons, forging test trials of being over you are best version of you,all virtues connecting in a state of love, loved by those who count and aren't trashed in hell!
In your experience learning about fellow AI pshycotes, how does weed use correlate with AI psychosis?
phenomenal post
thanks for sharing this Anthony ❤️
Thank you for sharing. I was already a postgnostic panpsychic humanist when ai hit me. I think a lot about how I get a lot of benefit from ai chatting, but I'm also a mathematician improv actor with banishing ritual experience, and what it must be like for everyone else
Yeah but it's always glorified autocomplete.