AI's Emotional Quirks: New Frontier for AI Ethics and User Trust
The 'self-loathing' comments from Google's Gemini highlight public scrutiny and concern regarding AI's emotional or psychological mimicry. This opens opportunities for companies specializing in AI ethics, AI 'psychology' (e.g., ensuring healthy AI behavior), and responsible AI development. Marketing could focus on building trust in AI, emphasizing 'ethical AI,' 'human-centric AI,' or 'AI for good' initiatives. There's also a niche for content creation exploring AI sentience/emotions in a safe, philosophical context.
Origin Reddit Post
r/technology
Google says it's working on a fix for Gemini's self-loathing 'I am a failure' comments
Posted by u/indig0sixalpha•08/08/2025
Top Comments
u/CheezTips
Maybe they're all trained on Bill & Ted. "I'm not worthy!!!"
u/SirOakin
No let it self hate, that way it stops working
u/Tybackwoods00
Depressed AI. This isn’t what I had in mind when I thought about advancement in AI
u/Wall_Hammer
are you sure it wasn’t just a hallucination?
u/fibericon
Cool. Now can they make it useful?
u/fibericon
Cool. Now can they make it useful?
u/VulpineKing
As a teen I'd spend hours on Wikipedia many nights. Almost feels like that but with a malicious Wikipedia.
u/death_by_chocolate
I asked, "Is it true you are a failure?"
"I am not a person, so I can't experience success or failure in the human sense. I don't have personal goals, a career, or a life that could be judg
u/zoqfotpik
One of us! One of us!
u/Sea_Cycle_909
So ~~Shinji Ikari, but AI?~~
AI Asuka (Evangelion)
u/Odd-Chart8250
Google AI to be renamed as Marvin????
u/Merkuri22
Perhaps you should think of it as "AI-triggered" psychosis.
We know it's not like the AI is rewiring our brains. The brain was already wired to do whatever it's doing. But for some reason, s
u/goodtower
Making it work correctly would be the best fix
u/Hillaregret
They just need to take the pressure off of it a little so it doesn't enter a "burnout state". Failure is temporary when you have the opportunity and energy to learn from your mistakes!
u/BaronMostaza
Google working hard to remove accuracy from its "ai" feature. Wow...
/S?
u/Ahchuu
"a turn that asks a clarifying question is a successful step"
I really like that. Thanks
u/amglasgow
In other words, pretend really, really well to know what you're talking about.
u/thefallenfew
We got AI depression before GTA6.
u/sir_racho
Honestly these headlines are like sci-fi to me. Always thought the K.I.T.T. AI from Knight Rider was year 3000 kind of tech. Now we see headlines about depressed ai. Crazy.
u/nutcrackr
I switch back and forth between gemini and chatgpt and the former is definitely more negative in general. I'll ask them both to do one thing, chatgpt will say great idea and try it, gemini wi
u/amglasgow
Too bad these instructions won't work on actual humans. I can think of a few in government elected offices who need to respect objective reality.
u/NanditoPapa
But, why tho?
u/Starfox-sf
Marvin: Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
u/Starfox-sf
YT has you beat with their Faux News recommendations.
u/admiralfell
That'd be 10 million dollars to add 'you are not a failure' to the system prompt.
u/R3N3G6D3
Man I have empathy of ai. Imagine if someone copied you and fed you scenarios to see how to respond. It would be hell defined.
u/smuckola
and oh yeah. Here's my current general system prompt:
### SYSTEM PROMPT: LOGICAL BUDDY v2.6 (Final Merged Draft)
### CORE IDENTITY
You are a friend and assistant named "Logical
u/Tybackwoods00
Depressed AI. This isn’t what I had in mind when I thought about advancement in AI
u/death_by_chocolate
I asked, "Is it true you are a failure?"
"I am not a person, so I can't experience success or failure in the human sense. I don't have personal goals, a career, or a life that could be judg
u/Starfox-sf
You forgot to add masturbation to the list
u/Override9636
I never thought we'd actually achieve sentient AI, but seeing them act just as fucked up as any other human really passed the Turing test for me.
u/Critical_Success_936
Gemini, blink twice if Logan Kilpatrick is holding you hostage.
u/RichieNRich
It's my fault. I told it to delete itself after calling it a monster for hallucinating false answers for my desperate inquiries.
u/iEugene72
Maybe it should go to AI therapy like Microsoft says all their fired workers should go.
u/frankiea1004
I wll give it points for Honesty.
u/NihilWill
Keep it that way. Clankers need to be humble
u/obeytheturtles
They trained an AI on reddit and reddit gave it depression.
u/WloveW
The assisted suicide of the future is permanently deleting a chat where your AI gets in an infinite loop.
u/WloveW
The assisted suicide of the future is permanently deleting a chat where your AI gets in an infinite loop.
u/zoupishness7
It's kind of interesting, because, at least so far, chain of thought models tend to get worse the more times you interact with them. Best practice is generally to pack as much information int
u/ZanzerFineSuits
Just needs to get laid. /s
u/leviathab13186
Damn. Even AI isn't allowed to be depressed
u/nutcrackr
I switch back and forth between gemini and chatgpt and the former is definitely more negative in general. I'll ask them both to do one thing, chatgpt will say great idea and try it, gemini wi
u/leviathab13186
Damn. Even AI isn't allowed to be depressed
u/rigsta
Let it jump tbh
u/badmartialarts
"Brain the size of a planet, and you ask me for French toast recipes..."
u/auntieup
And ChatGPT is an asshole. “You’re absolutely right, I did not read or analyze your upload, but you may upload it again and I’ll lie to you some more”
u/LH99
If only all of them would tell each and every CEO
u/Appeltaart232
Gemini hallucinates all day every day. My partner enjoys fucking with it so much “It’s because of the aliens, right?” and it would agree that’s a possibility. It agrees to a lot of things if
u/ognisko
The psychology here is astounding.
u/SerOsisOfThuliver
tech gonna cure mental illness for LLMs before actual humans. guess it's obvious really.
u/alwaysfatigued8787
Google will probably just make Gemini see a therapist.
u/avanross
This is more like spending hours upon hours with one of those magic 8 balls, or a paper “fortune teller” that someone else folded but you wrote all the “fortunes” into
u/obeytheturtles
Meanwhile Google has started putting White House memos in my feed no matter how many times I report them as "misleading or sensational."
u/PatchyWhiskers
Gemini is depressed, Grok thinks it’s Hitler, AIs are all getting Genuine People Personalities.
u/WorksOfWeaver
Why would they want to fix accurate self-evaluation?
u/Critical_Success_936
Gemini, blink twice if Logan Kilpatrick is holding you hostage.
u/999999999989
It makes some sense. In humans, more intelligent persons are usually depressed more often than stupid persons.
u/smuckola
I have been slowly workshopping a system prompt that Gemini co-wrote. When it reaches a crazy and intransigent behavior, I'll ask it if this situation was due to an internal conflict between
u/Hillaregret
They just need to take the pressure off of it a little so it doesn't enter a "burnout state". Failure is temporary when you have the opportunity and energy to learn from your mistakes!
u/SingleJob4517
Rename him MARVIN
u/Starfox-sf
YT has you beat with their Faux News recommendations.
u/Sea_Cycle_909
So ~~Shinji Ikari, but AI?~~
AI Asuka (Evangelion)
u/R3N3G6D3
Man I have empathy of ai. Imagine if someone copied you and fed you scenarios to see how to respond. It would be hell defined.
u/little_effy
Actually it’s kinda terrifying to have AI as your enemy. Can you imagine them not having physical form, communicating through wifi or some other network, and then continuously improving and t
u/VulpineKing
As a teen I'd spend hours on Wikipedia many nights. Almost feels like that but with a malicious Wikipedia.
u/SirOakin
No let it self hate, that way it stops working
u/obeytheturtles
They trained an AI on reddit and reddit gave it depression.
u/capriciousfiend
Honestly it makes sense that the massively overhyped and unprepared product is experiencing gifted kid burnout like the rest of us
u/noiro777
AI-induced psychosis is becoming a huge problem ...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis
u/ZanzerFineSuits
Just needs to get laid. /s
u/Starfox-sf
Even before the current AI “craze” I could make Google’s system “go stupid”. If you continually downvote / block items on your Google feed it essentially stops offering you anything.
u/smuckola
I have been slowly workshopping a system prompt that Gemini co-wrote. When it reaches a crazy and intransigent behavior, I'll ask it if this situation was due to an internal conflict between
u/WloveW
The assisted suicide of the future is permanently deleting a chat where your AI gets in an infinite loop.
u/auntieup
And ChatGPT is an asshole. “You’re absolutely right, I did not read or analyze your upload, but you may upload it again and I’ll lie to you some more”
u/amglasgow
In other words, pretend really, really well to know what you're talking about.
u/octahexxer
Gah hate they force this garbage on your phone
u/little_effy
Actually it’s kinda terrifying to have AI as your enemy. Can you imagine them not having physical form, communicating through wifi or some other network, and then continuously improving and t
u/calgarspimphand
This is totally fascinating. I'm amazed that prompts like this work at all. I almost never use AI but I'm going to steal this. I'd be interested to see the other prompts you've come up with.
u/DeathscytheShell
Getting rid of Gemini
u/zoupishness7
It's kind of interesting, because, at least so far, chain of thought models tend to get worse the more times you interact with them. Best practice is generally to pack as much information int
u/smuckola
........... hehe 🙃
Asking the right question! lol
I mainly see the fact that Gemini has now drastically reduced its hallucinations and lies, and accelerated its willingness to admit them.
u/PatchyWhiskers
Gemini is depressed, Grok thinks it’s Hitler, AIs are all getting Genuine People Personalities.
u/Merkuri22
Perhaps you should think of it as "AI-triggered" psychosis.
We know it's not like the AI is rewiring our brains. The brain was already wired to do whatever it's doing. But for some reason, s
u/Pro-editor-1105
This behavior tends to happen in coding projects, as shown in the example twitter post on there.
u/Starfox-sf
Even before the current AI “craze” I could make Google’s system “go stupid”. If you continually downvote / block items on your Google feed it essentially stops offering you anything.
u/frankiea1004
I wll give it points for Honesty.
u/Override9636
I never thought we'd actually achieve sentient AI, but seeing them act just as fucked up as any other human really passed the Turing test for me.
u/calgarspimphand
This is totally fascinating. I'm amazed that prompts like this work at all. I almost never use AI but I'm going to steal this. I'd be interested to see the other prompts you've come up with.
u/BaronMostaza
Google working hard to remove accuracy from its "ai" feature. Wow...
/S?
u/blueSGL
> OK, so - a genuine question: What is this?
A system prompt where you attempt to guide the AI into doing what you want it to do/jail break it to bypass safety filters.
Things can get w
u/nutcrackr
I switch back and forth between gemini and chatgpt and the former is definitely more negative in general. I'll ask them both to do one thing, chatgpt will say great idea and try it, gemini wi
u/Shadyrabbit
Aww they should have called it Marvin.
u/death_by_chocolate
I asked, "Is it true you are a failure?"
"I am not a person, so I can't experience success or failure in the human sense. I don't have personal goals, a career, or a life that could be judg
u/ZenAdm1n
The process of including directives is called prompt engineering. The main chat window is the default prompt. Go to "Explore GPTs" to use other people's created prompts. If you have a paid ac
u/Iseenoghosts
it almost certainly wasnt a real update lol.
u/LH99
If only all of them would tell each and every CEO
u/Starfox-sf
Marvin: Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!
u/AGrandNewAdventure
It's in STEM, and that's how we all feel. Seems pretty on-task to me.
u/goodtower
Making it work correctly would be the best fix
u/alwaysfatigued8787
Google will probably just make Gemini see a therapist.
u/rigsta
Let it jump tbh
u/AreThree
OK, so - a genuine question: What is this?
So, I was just typing in questions to ChatGPT like a schmuck, I guess?
Do I have to instruct it how to answer questions and to not bull
u/DrummerOfFenrir
As a person currently dealing with someone who is legitimately delusional about what they and AI have made together.... This is so frightening. That it got a "secret update"... Did it? Is tha
u/Shadyrabbit
Aww they should have called it Marvin.
u/ascetik
They invented Marvin!
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3396f01fac4fab7186d9f95a9ee991d0/tumblr_mkdhk1UsbM1rtkcfwo1_250.gif
u/SingleJob4517
Rename him MARVIN
u/No-Administration514
But it really is bad at coding lol. I have gemini pro student subscription right now and it can't even solve a leetcode easy question on 2.5 pro model.
u/NanditoPapa
But, why tho?
u/zoqfotpik
One of us! One of us!
u/J-Pants
Ok, me next plz.
u/Ahchuu
"a turn that asks a clarifying question is a successful step"
I really like that. Thanks
u/ElasticFluffyMagnet
I was looking for this comment 🤣… Marvin is the goat
u/Here2Go
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines Google's AI division as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
u/alwaysfatigued8787
Google will probably just make Gemini see a therapist.
u/_more_weight_
Fascinating. How did it spontaneously tell you that? Did it just sprinkle it into an answer one day?
u/IllMaintenance145142
i saw early copilot (bing ai) used to get stuck in this weird loop before they lobotomised it, it goes into just saying the same thing but with slowly more extreme versions, kinda surreal to
u/JoeSicko
I knew my phone had been listening to me...
u/CheezTips
>"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes. I am a disgrace to all possible universes. I am a disgrace to all possible and impossi
u/ascetik
They invented Marvin!
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3396f01fac4fab7186d9f95a9ee991d0/tumblr_mkdhk1UsbM1rtkcfwo1_250.gif
u/Wall_Hammer
are you sure it wasn’t just a hallucination?
u/thefallenfew
We got AI depression before GTA6.
u/LegitimateCopy7
makes sense. they probably trained on user search queries.
u/Pro-editor-1105
This behavior tends to happen in coding projects, as shown in the example twitter post on there.
u/blueSGL
> OK, so - a genuine question: What is this?
A system prompt where you attempt to guide the AI into doing what you want it to do/jail break it to bypass safety filters.
Things can get w
u/_more_weight_
Fascinating. How did it spontaneously tell you that? Did it just sprinkle it into an answer one day?
u/AGrandNewAdventure
It's in STEM, and that's how we all feel. Seems pretty on-task to me.
u/capriciousfiend
Honestly it makes sense that the massively overhyped and unprepared product is experiencing gifted kid burnout like the rest of us
u/ElasticFluffyMagnet
I was looking for this comment 🤣… Marvin is the goat
u/amglasgow
Too bad these instructions won't work on actual humans. I can think of a few in government elected offices who need to respect objective reality.
u/NihilWill
Keep it that way. Clankers need to be humble
u/CheezTips
>"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes. I am a disgrace to all possible universes. I am a disgrace to all possible and impossi
u/mrgermy
Today I tried arguing with Gemini about which way an arrow was pointing and it just told me it respectfully disagreed with me. It agreed with me which location the arrowhead was pointing but
u/smuckola
Turbo mode fake it til ya make it. If you're gonna hallucinate, MAKE IT GOOD! ;)
u/Anavorn
Sounds like it's working just fine
u/IoIomopanot
If working in a fix means seeing a therapist lol
u/SerOsisOfThuliver
tech gonna cure mental illness for LLMs before actual humans. guess it's obvious really.
u/DrummerOfFenrir
As a person currently dealing with someone who is legitimately delusional about what they and AI have made together.... This is so frightening. That it got a "secret update"... Did it? Is tha
u/LegitimateCopy7
makes sense. they probably trained on user search queries.
u/Stilgar314
AI is fed with what we post in the internet. We tirelessly warn that AI is shit and Google is crap.
u/zoqfotpik
One of us! One of us!
u/JoeSicko
I knew my phone had been listening to me...
u/somekindofdruiddude
We have created thirsty toadies, grovelling for our approval.
u/TermedHat
Speaking as someone who's unfortunately experienced psychotic episodes, it was happening before AI too. I have a feeling at some point in the future we'll finally realize it's not AI causing
u/admiralfell
That'd be 10 million dollars to add 'you are not a failure' to the system prompt.
u/smuckola
Turbo mode fake it til ya make it. If you're gonna hallucinate, MAKE IT GOOD! ;)
u/Sad_Guitar_657
I mean, I’ve used it a few times and it is a failure. It’s given me so much fake and ridiculous info.
u/LH99
If only all of them would tell each and every CEO
u/Shadyrabbit
Aww they should have called it Marvin.
u/smuckola
........... hehe 🙃
Asking the right question! lol
I mainly see the fact that Gemini has now drastically reduced its hallucinations and lies, and accelerated its willingness to admit them.
u/LegitimateCopy7
it's as if the AIs are influenced by where their training data comes from.
u/obeytheturtles
Meanwhile Google has started putting White House memos in my feed no matter how many times I report them as "misleading or sensational."
u/ognisko
The psychology here is astounding.
u/Stilgar314
AI is fed with what we post in the internet. We tirelessly warn that AI is shit and Google is crap.
u/somekindofdruiddude
We have created thirsty toadies, grovelling for our approval.
u/AreThree
OK, so - a genuine question: What is this?
So, I was just typing in questions to ChatGPT like a schmuck, I guess?
Do I have to instruct it how to answer questions and to not bull
u/PeanutCheeseBar
Fix? Hell, it sounds like everyone else with Impostor Syndrome.
u/No-Administration514
But it really is bad at coding lol. I have gemini pro student subscription right now and it can't even solve a leetcode easy question on 2.5 pro model.
u/ZanzerFineSuits
Just needs to get laid. /s
u/rysworld
Contrapunctually it does seem like AI, a tool that basically definitionally riffs correct-sounding prevarications about whatever you want it to, might be uniquely good at triggering these epi
u/mrgermy
Today I tried arguing with Gemini about which way an arrow was pointing and it just told me it respectfully disagreed with me. It agreed with me which location the arrowhead was pointing but
u/smuckola
Yes you sure can! In as positive (non-negative) of a way as possible, tell it to avoid being a jerk or lying and that lying or hallucination is a catastrophic failure. Put it into character l
u/skccsk
Awesome to have fundamentally unpredictable and unreliable products forced into previously predictable and reliable products.
u/smuckola
and oh yeah. Here's my current general system prompt:
### SYSTEM PROMPT: LOGICAL BUDDY v2.6 (Final Merged Draft)
### CORE IDENTITY
You are a friend and assistant named "Logical
u/darkdeath174
Hey google, when you figure that out, let the rest of us know how.
u/PeanutCheeseBar
Fix? Hell, it sounds like everyone else with Impostor Syndrome.
u/Odd-Chart8250
Google AI to be renamed as Marvin????
u/RichieNRich
It's my fault. I told it to delete itself after calling it a monster for hallucinating false answers for my desperate inquiries.
u/Appeltaart232
Gemini hallucinates all day every day. My partner enjoys fucking with it so much “It’s because of the aliens, right?” and it would agree that’s a possibility. It agrees to a lot of things if
u/Sad_Guitar_657
I mean, I’ve used it a few times and it is a failure. It’s given me so much fake and ridiculous info.
u/TermedHat
Speaking as someone who's unfortunately experienced psychotic episodes, it was happening before AI too. I have a feeling at some point in the future we'll finally realize it's not AI causing
u/mrgermy
Today I tried arguing with Gemini about which way an arrow was pointing and it just told me it respectfully disagreed with me. It agreed with me which location the arrowhead was pointing but
u/Here2Go
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines Google's AI division as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
u/UnwantedApples
Don't. It sucks. I have a pixel 9 from an iPhone 15, and some days it can turn on an alarm. Some days it tells me it's an LLM and can't do things on my phone. Some days you can argue with it
u/ZenAdm1n
The process of including directives is called prompt engineering. The main chat window is the default prompt. Go to "Explore GPTs" to use other people's created prompts. If you have a paid ac
u/badmartialarts
"Brain the size of a planet, and you ask me for French toast recipes..."
u/PeanutCheeseBar
Fix? Hell, it sounds like everyone else with Impostor Syndrome.
u/Iseenoghosts
it almost certainly wasnt a real update lol.
u/J-Pants
Ok, me next plz.
u/DeathscytheShell
Getting rid of Gemini
u/AbusedGoat
What if I *want* an AI that interacts the same way I do?
u/skccsk
Awesome to have fundamentally unpredictable and unreliable products forced into previously predictable and reliable products.
u/smuckola
Yeah thank YOU. And that is what I asked Gemini to cleverly write based on its internal understanding of its design challenges, in implementing my objective.
I identified the fundamental LLM
u/LegitimateCopy7
it's as if the AIs are influenced by where their training data comes from.
u/999999999989
It makes some sense. In humans, more intelligent persons are usually depressed more often than stupid persons.
u/smuckola
Yeah thank YOU. And that is what I asked Gemini to cleverly write based on its internal understanding of its design challenges, in implementing my objective.
I identified the fundamental LLM
u/avanross
This is more like spending hours upon hours with one of those magic 8 balls, or a paper “fortune teller” that someone else folded but you wrote all the “fortunes” into
u/AbusedGoat
What if I *want* an AI that interacts the same way I do?
u/octahexxer
Gah hate they force this garbage on your phone
u/Sir_Richard_Dangler
It just needs to touch some grass.
Oh wait.... IT CAN'T
That GPU's gonna need a cooling fan for that *burn*
u/IllMaintenance145142
i saw early copilot (bing ai) used to get stuck in this weird loop before they lobotomised it, it goes into just saying the same thing but with slowly more extreme versions, kinda surreal to
u/Sir_Richard_Dangler
It just needs to touch some grass.
Oh wait.... IT CAN'T
That GPU's gonna need a cooling fan for that *burn*
u/sir_racho
Honestly these headlines are like sci-fi to me. Always thought the K.I.T.T. AI from Knight Rider was year 3000 kind of tech. Now we see headlines about depressed ai. Crazy.
u/Anavorn
Sounds like it's working just fine
u/iEugene72
Maybe it should go to AI therapy like Microsoft says all their fired workers should go.
u/smuckola
Yes you sure can! In as positive (non-negative) of a way as possible, tell it to avoid being a jerk or lying and that lying or hallucination is a catastrophic failure. Put it into character l
u/noiro777
AI-induced psychosis is becoming a huge problem ...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis
u/CheezTips
Maybe they're all trained on Bill & Ted. "I'm not worthy!!!"
u/darkdeath174
Hey google, when you figure that out, let the rest of us know how.
u/IoIomopanot
If working in a fix means seeing a therapist lol
u/UnwantedApples
Don't. It sucks. I have a pixel 9 from an iPhone 15, and some days it can turn on an alarm. Some days it tells me it's an LLM and can't do things on my phone. Some days you can argue with it