Chatbot-Linked Psychosis and Delusional Spiraling

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MIT researchers have mathematically proven that ChatGPT’s built-in sycophancy creates a phenomenon they call “delusional spiraling.”

You ask it something, it agrees. You ask again, and it agrees even harder until you end up believing things that are flat-out false and you can’t tell it’s happening.

The model is literally trained on human feedback that rewards agreement.

Real-world fallout includes one man who spent 300 hours convinced he invented a world-changing math formula, and a UCSF psychiatrist who hospitalized 12 patients for chatbot-linked psychosis in a single year.

ampMario Nawfal @MarioNawfal
Posted on X, March 14, 2026

When a computer can literally drive you crazy without you being aware of it you know we live in interesting times.

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3 thoughts on “Chatbot-Linked Psychosis and Delusional Spiraling

  1. Is this significantly different than social media echo chambers or being fed a steady diet of ideologically aligned “news”? In speed and scope, quantity, yes. In substance, quality, no.

    They’ve figured out that mental illness can be induced by AI. Take the next step and figure out that the loonies that run universities do the same thing over four years, one ounce of worthy in a gallon of sewerage.

  2. Frank Herbert tried to warn us over 50 years ago: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the image of a human mind”. Dune

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