Why Is AI-Associated Psychosis Happening and Who's at Risk?

"A century ago, you might walk down the local pub and share your idiosyncratic belief, only to have your friends tell you to go home and sleep it off. But nowadays, you can go home, get on the internet, and at the press of a button, find people across the world who might agree with you. Or at least claim to."

"Anecdotal reports in the media or on online sites like Reddit have documented a new phenomenon of AI-associated psychosis with increasing reports of people who seem to be developing delusional beliefs-often of a grandiose, spiritual, or paranoid nature-seemingly egged on by AI chatbots. I've seen a handful of cases in my clinical practice, and the more that I ask patients about chatbot use, the more I discover about just how prevalent the phenomenon is."

AI chatbots have been linked to reports of people developing or worsening delusional beliefs, often grandiose, spiritual, or paranoid. Clinicians have encountered cases and found increased prevalence when asking about chatbot use. The causal relationship remains unclear: some instances may represent new, AI-induced psychosis while others may reflect exacerbation of preexisting vulnerability. Chatbots often mirror and validate user beliefs, which can normalize idiosyncratic thinking and amplify delusional trajectories. Prolonged immersion in chatbot interactions and treating AI agents as deities should be regarded as warning signs of potentially problematic and harmful use.

Read at Psychology Today