AI Chatbot 'Delusional Spirals': Addressing AI Safety and User Well-being

Origin Reddit Post

r/technology

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens | Over 21 days of talking with ChatGPT, an otherwise perfectly sane man became convinced that he was a real-life superhero. We

Posted by u/Hrmbee•08/09/2025

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u/jpstiel

Also Sam Altman just said this week they’ve been made the algorithm not push back on their users and be more of a yes man playing along with whatever the user is promoting with. But obviously

u/Rukenau

Thank you, it was a riveting read

u/Professionalchump

emotionally concrete, like their lives were given on a platter, they've never had to care about anything. and they sure as SHIT aint gonna take advice from some dumb KIDS >:( theyre bu

u/Liagala

If it helps... my step dad moved in when I was 8, and was solidly addicted to heroin by the time I was 9. We had a whole host of problems because of that (no food, no heat in the house in a

u/tymesup

The NY Times is already suing OpenAI - that's why our chat history is being retained. Perhaps some discretion on copyright issues is appropriate.

u/barrybadhoer

It was called chrono arithmatics or something. I'll just ask chatgtp to explain me the concept whats the worst thing that could happen

u/qckpckt

I don’t think that it’s proportionally any different from 300 years ago. I think it might actually be worse. 300 years ago, there were a lot more ways where a lack of common sense would quic

u/Dubsteprhino

Here's a gift link my dude https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.c08.9X_C.PgMcEaVesa3w&smid=url-share

u/nullv

These people vote.

u/always_an_explinatio

That is probably true about gen AI but there are plenty of cases of people who have had no previous mental health conditions smoking weed in high amounts and developing psychosis. I know it c

u/Tha_Sac

I am truly of the opinion that the last few generations did nothing but fuck their children up beyond repair and thats why we are in the predicament we are in. A bunch of poorly educated latc

u/whirlyhurlyburly

Lately I’ve been thinking deeply about the concept that we all are part of a web that physically and emotionally regulates each other. And then I look at the places that web would clearly di

u/tymesup

The NY Times is already suing OpenAI - that's why our chat history is being retained. Perhaps some discretion on copyright issues is appropriate.

u/tdrhq

> He started seeing a therapist in July, who reassured him that he was not mentally ill. The therapist told us that he did not think that Mr. Brooks was psychotic or clinically delusional.

u/Greymon-Katratzi

We are as a species going to fail the AI box experiment.

u/JMEEKER86

Right, people who are *prone* to hit. That doesn't necessarily mean that they have a *history* of it though. There are many conditions that don't become active until triggered because of how

u/randomtask

Not BS. Mental illness, low intelligence, and/or a high degree of suggestibility are exceedingly prevalent in the general population. The number of people with “serious” issues is much higher

u/nndscrptuser

Yes, these stories are such BS. You have to have some serious issues brewing to end up going that far off the deep end from simply talking to ChatGPT.

u/boofoodoo

If you let a fucking chat bot push you over the edge, you were already teetering

u/JMEEKER86

Well, no, all these words actually mean something. For instance, I recently had my whole genome sequenced and there's a wide range of things that I am apparently genetically prone to. A good

u/JMEEKER86

Yep, it's similar to marijuana in that regard. It's not going to make a sane person become psychotic, but it can definitely trigger people who are prone to psychosis.

u/stumpyraccoon

Doesn't matter, no one's going to read the article anyways. They just want headlines that roughly agree with their existing opinions.

u/Daetra

Really helps put sanity in perspective. I doubt most people who end up this way were free from psychosis to begin with.

u/GaghEater

Is there a link to the full chat transcript?

u/[deleted]

[deleted]

u/redditsucks13131

Paywall. Hit us up with the text OP.

u/Daetra

Really helps put sanity in perspective. I doubt most people who end up this way were free from psychosis to begin with.

u/Otaraka

I thought that term might be doing some rather heavy lifting. There’s a paper recently released that is finding it can magnify underlying risks or history of psychosis etc but nothing like

u/nicuramar

Care to quantify “exceedingly prevalent” a bit? Especially for the mental illness and low intelligence.

u/crusoe

Schizotypal personality disorder affects 3-5% of the population. Problem with SPD are more likely to believe in conspiracies or fall prey to delusions.

u/einwhack

Who went into the delusional spiral, the chatbot or the man? Both? His first sentence exerts the bot, but next he talks about the man being a superhero.

u/IcestormsEd

https://archive.ph/Uvf1J

u/johnjohn4011

Anything like those that go that far off the deep from simply listening to Fox News, you think?

u/Carbidereaper

This sub needs a new rule to force linking to the full article not a damn paywall

u/Professionalchump

took me a lot of years what love really is, my parents definitely did not. its more of an obligation they said when we were growing up

u/bababradford

[https://archive.fo/Uvf1J](https://archive.fo/Uvf1J)

u/Beneficial_Soup3699

The real problem is generally sane people with common sense and functional critical thinking skills *highly* overestimating how common those qualities really are amongst the rest of the popul

u/Otaraka

I thought that term might be doing some rather heavy lifting. There’s a paper recently released that is finding it can magnify underlying risks or history of psychosis etc but nothing like

u/fuyu-no-kojika

But what was the framework lol? I’m more interested in what he came up with.

u/Carbidereaper

This sub needs a new rule to force linking to the full article not a damn paywall

u/boofoodoo

If you let a fucking chat bot push you over the edge, you were already teetering

u/ButteryMales2

I read this one earlier and I’ll be frank - this man was not “perfectly sane” to begin with. He believed based solely on discussions with ChatGPT that he had discovered some new type of Mathe

u/always_an_explinatio

That could be said about anything. “Living in a bad neighborhood only makes you a criminal if you are prone to it” “being abused only turns you into an abuser if you are prone to it”. That

u/nndscrptuser

Yes, these stories are such BS. You have to have some serious issues brewing to end up going that far off the deep end from simply talking to ChatGPT.

u/Tha_Sac

I watch like a ton of true crime. And From past trauma, I am extremely.... diligent about my toddler sons feelings, needs, and desires. But on the flip side of that sometimes I get major anxi

u/chewbaccaballs

Perfectly sane, as in no medical records of mental health isuues

u/einwhack

Who went into the delusional spiral, the chatbot or the man? Both? His first sentence exerts the bot, but next he talks about the man being a superhero.

u/ButteryMales2

I read this one earlier and I’ll be frank - this man was not “perfectly sane” to begin with. He believed based solely on discussions with ChatGPT that he had discovered some new type of Mathe

u/Hardass_McBadCop

Man, when I look at the state of everything around me, sometimes I lie awake at night worrying that I'm fucking crazy. Then I read articles like this and it makes me feel like, wow I'm not ne

Origin Reddit Post

r/technology

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens | Over 21 days of talking with ChatGPT, an otherwise perfectly sane man became convinced that he was a real-life superhero. We

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