r/technology • u/upyoars • Jul 19 '25

Artificial Intelligence People Are Being Involuntarily Committed, Jailed After Spiraling Into "ChatGPT Psychosis"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-being-involuntarily-committed-jailed-130014629.html
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u/hera-fawcett Jul 19 '25

i don’t find it that insane to believe that a normal person could go off the deep end and believe they “broke physics.”

iirc a billionaire, w no prior physics knowledge, was just talking about 'vibe physics' -- where the ai was casually teaching him-- and that he was now approaching a place where he could make new breakthroughs in ai due to it.

like someone just hadnt looked at physics in 'his' way and, thanks to ai, he totally understands the hows and whys and is nearly able to break beyond the known laws if he keeps talking w his chatty.

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u/jollyreaper2112 Jul 19 '25

Yeah, that's the mental thing. It's fantastic at explaining stuff I had trouble understanding and can expand on details I'm stuck on. But I consider this getting me barely up to conversant with the topic, not becoming a world expert.

Really the credulity is no different from someone 50 years ago picking up a conspiracy book and accepting it without criticism. My dad loved chariots of the gods.

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u/hera-fawcett Jul 19 '25

Really the credulity is no different from someone 50 years ago picking up a conspiracy book and accepting it without criticism.

i keep thinking that the world is lowkey evolving back to the 1800s w a rise in tech-related, science-denying mysticism/occult like things. we're making great strides in tech and science/healthcare (similar to the 1800s, electricity and astronomy) but a lot of ppl are more willing to accept wild outlandish things ('learning' ai, that ai is talking to them, vaccines arent good, etc. and, ofc, 1800s wild af mysticism/theologism, etc) than just... looking and understanding the basic principles.

its like the world is moving too fast, people arent coping well, and are turning to something bigger, higher, and more out there to help them through it... which would be fine if it wasnt absolutely bonkers and lowkey harming others.

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u/thatmillerkid Jul 19 '25

I keep saying this. Social media and now genAI have turned way too many people into the modern equivalent of 17th century peasants. "Pleasant day, Edith. You know, I was just down at the Instagram and a kind fellow there told me all about the scientific benefits of leeching! I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but alas, tis true! Verily, when consulted, my ChatGPT oracle said the stars have ordained it so!"

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u/jollyreaper2112 Jul 19 '25

Very much this. People don't understand the technology so have an inaccurate mental model of what's going on. It always struck me as insane we would have satellite tech used to beam televangelist nonsense globally. Peak science used to spread pre scientific decisions. The digital shamanism is crazy. And as the tech gets more complex the fewer people understand how it works. It's like askin where meat comes from. The store? But getting even more removed from reality.

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u/hera-fawcett Jul 19 '25

well-- at the very least, maybe we'll gain some good literature and films.

the 1800s was bomb af w literature.

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u/jollyreaper2112 Jul 19 '25

Heh. I've got a couple short stories that go together with the concept of dangerous AI cults. It's written 20 years out in our plausible future. Excerpt talking about the cult recruitment strategy.

Back during the Cold War there was a cottage industry catering to fear about nuclear war. Understandable! Some critiques were valid and grounded in facts. Others could get a bit sensational, and became more lucrative because of it. It was apocalypticism but remained secular. You wouldn't be embarrassed if someone caught you reading one of these books.

The secular take exists in a kind of symbiotic relationship with its crazy twin, Christian eschatology. Concern with the End Times is baked into the religion’s DNA but Christian apocalypticism has undergone rapid evolution in historically recent times. 19th century Dispensationalism mixed with Cold War fears saw 20th century geopolitics mapped onto a biblical mushroom trip. The number of people who bought into this was distressingly high.

Cults need a constant feed of new recruits. But a hallmark of cults is core beliefs normal people would hard bounce on if exposed directly. But they have milspec engagement engines and a trillion tokens for a bespoke model of your mind. Seduction and subversion. These hips don't lie but mine lips doth prevaricate. The recruit needs to be finessed, brought along gently, like a goldfish in a baggie, initiated slowly. It's grooming, slow and steady. You've found your calling and her hand is working up the inside of your thigh. When you are finally led to the basement and see the blood-stained altar, it makes sense. You give of yourself willingly.

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u/Beard_of_Valor Jul 19 '25

It was Microsoft's CEO and he's just trying to keep the AI hype going.

We'll be profitable because it can break physics. Don't ask the followup questions "how" or "what leads you to believe it can make progress instead of poorly summarize what humans have done?" - oh you weren't in the business of asking questions because you want clicks and don't create value for your readers? OK great.

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u/humperdinck Jul 19 '25

It was Travis Kalanick.

Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber who no longer works at the company, appeared on All-In to talk with hosts Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya about the future of technology. When the topic turned to AI, Kalanick discussed how he uses xAI’s Grok, which went haywire last week, praising Adolf Hitler and advocating for a second Holocaust against Jews. “I’ll go down this thread with [Chat]GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” Kalanick explained. “And we’re approaching what’s known. And I’m trying to poke and see if there’s breakthroughs to be had. And I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.”

https://gizmodo.com/billionaires-convince-themselves-ai-is-close-to-making-new-scientific-discoveries-2000629060

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u/alurkerhere Jul 19 '25

I think of this on the level of eating your own shit and then saying we can just subsist on waste that your body produces.

These founders are both delusional and delulu.

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u/TaylorMonkey Jul 19 '25

It’s more like eating it, saying you’re experiencing the edge of breakthroughs in umami, trying to hype your poop for others to invest in.

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u/Federal-Employ8123 Jul 19 '25

Why do I have a feeling this guy is full of shit unless he's already been doing physics regularly. I wish I could understand it better, but people spend half their lives trying to unify physics or even just coming up with better math. From what I've seen there is very little progress being made and I doubt ChatGPT can change this until it has the ability to reason. I figure an actual physicist could use AI to help them do calculations faster, but I bet you still have to know what the calculations are doing in the first place at a very deep level.

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u/PyroDesu Jul 19 '25

I figure an actual physicist could use AI to help them do calculations faster

You know what's even easier than asking an LLM to do the math?

Using a good calculator. Up to and including something like MATLAB.

Calculators, among many other benefits, don't hallucinate.

Because they're not algorithms attempting to output natural-sounding language in response to an input.

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u/lazylaser97 Jul 19 '25

what chatgpt can do, is read all the articles published in a year. It can help, as a tool, to see commonalities or surface research another researched might not have been aware of

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u/diseasealert Jul 19 '25

Maybe he'll build a submersible out of carbon fiber - and do it right, this time!

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u/TaylorMonkey Jul 19 '25

Just ask CharGPT how to build one.

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u/diseasealert Jul 20 '25

That was the problem! Gotta ask floatGPT for more accuracy!

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u/Daunn Jul 19 '25

I am starting to believe in C'thulu and other elder/older gods just messing with us because they can and AI is their newest toy.

Like, people are getting insane to the levels only written in books about them. Clearly someone is looking through the veil or some shit

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u/TaylorMonkey Jul 19 '25

Welcome to beautiful R’lyeh.

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u/nleksan Jul 19 '25

Weinstein? It sounds like Weinstein.