AI psychosis is not an accepted clinical term. However, it is increasingly being used to describe a phenomenon where people interacting with AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT<\/a>, Claude or Grok, become detached from reality. They may believe the AI has real intentions, emotions, or incredible powers.<\/p>\n Examples include thinking they have unlocked secret features, forming romantic attachments to an AI, or believing that a chatbot has provided them with extraordinary abilities.<\/p>\n Suleyman said that \u201cseemingly conscious AI\u201d \u2014 tools that appear to be sentient \u2014 were keeping him \u201cawake at night\u201d. While AI is not conscious in any human sense, the perception that it is can have dangerous effects, he added.<\/p>\n Mustafa Suleyman<\/p>\n DAVID RYDER\/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n \u201cConsciousness is a foundation of human rights, moral and legal. Who\/what has it is enormously important,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n \u2022 Chatbots \u2018deceived children into thinking they were getting therapy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOur focus should be on the wellbeing and rights of humans, animals and nature on planet Earth. AI consciousness is a short and slippery slope to rights, welfare, citizenship.\u201d <\/p>\n The film Her, released in 2013, examined the potentially disastrous effects of artificial intelligence as Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with the Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).<\/p>\n Now, over a decade later, at least one high-profile user seems to have become convinced that an AI chatbot has allowed him to challenge scientific boundaries. On an episode of the All-In podcast, Travis Kalanick, the former Uber chief who resigned in 2017, described using tools such as ChatGPT and Grok with the firm belief that they were carrying him towards breakthroughs in quantum physics. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go down this thread with GPT or Grok, and I\u2019ll start to get to the edge of what\u2019s known in quantum physics, and then I\u2019m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it\u2019s vibe physics,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Travis Kalanick on the All-In podcast<\/p>\n Hugh, from Scotland, shared his experience with the BBC<\/a>. He said he became convinced he was about to become a multimillionaire after using ChatGPT to prepare for what he believed was wrongful dismissal by a former employer. \u201cThe more information I gave it, the more it would say \u2018oh this treatment\u2019s terrible, you should really be getting more than this,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt never pushed back on anything I was saying.\u201d<\/p>\n Suleyman has called for clearer boundaries and warnings around AI. \u201cCompanies shouldn\u2019t claim\/promote the idea that their AIs are conscious. The AIs shouldn\u2019t either,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n Dr Susan Shelmerdine, a medical imaging doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital and an AI academic, told the BBC that one day doctors may start asking patients how much they use AI, in the same way that they currently ask about smoking and drinking habits. \u201cWe already know what ultra-processed foods<\/a> can do to the body, and this is ultra-processed information. We\u2019re going to get an avalanche of ultra-processed minds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing numbers of people are suffering from \u201cAI psychosis\u201d, where they believe that chatbots have become sentient or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-89089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mustafa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/26396ff1-a2bd-4146-90f6-9831eeef08a2.jpg\")
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