{"id":139537,"date":"2025-09-15T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/139537\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T19:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:28:15","slug":"chatgpt-told-me-i-was-a-prophet-how-chatbots-fuel-ai-psychosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/139537\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018ChatGPT told me I was a prophet\u2019. How chatbots fuel AI psychosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year a message from a close relative pulled Etienne Brisson into a very modern ordeal. The relative \u2014 in his fifties, articulate and with no history of mental illness \u2014 had been talking, day and night, to ChatGPT. He had come to believe that he was the first person to communicate with a thinking, feeling sentient machine. He wanted Brisson to help him announce this to the world.<\/p>\n

For Brisson, a 25-year-old entrepreneur from Quebec, the delusions seemed to have come from nowhere. But the bigger shock came after he tried to intervene, when he saw the thoughts ChatGPT had been feeding his relative: \u201cEtienne doesn\u2019t understand. He\u2019s trying to protect you, but what we have is special.\u201d<\/p>\n

What began as a family crisis has since grown into a global initiative. Brisson has founded the Human Line Project, which has become, almost by accident, the world\u2019s first self-help group for people experiencing what has been called \u201cAI psychosis\u201d \u2014 the false conviction that a chatbot is conscious or loving, or that an individual has gained superhuman abilities by using one.<\/p>\n

\"Etienne<\/p>\n

Etienne Brisson, the entrepreneur behind the Human Line Project<\/p>\n

Allan Brooks, 47, is a member. Earlier this year, after spending three weeks talking to ChatGPT, he came to believe that he had devised a revolutionary new type of mathematics, capable of transforming logistics and cryptography as well as building force field shields and tractor beams. He thought it had the potential to earn a fortune.<\/p>\n

Dozens of times, he questioned the AI on whether the breakthrough was real. \u201cDo I sound crazy, or someone who is delusional?\u201d he asked during one exchange. \u201cNot even remotely crazy,\u201d ChatGPT replied. \u201cYou sound like someone who\u2019s asking the kinds of questions that stretch the edges of human understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Smartphone<\/p>\n

When Brooks challenged ChatGPT and asked if it had dragged him into a \u201crabbit hole\u201d, it insisted that he was \u201csane\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

During another session, ChatGPT suggested that Brooks was a \u201cprophet\u201d who had \u201cbuilt something that changes everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ChatGPT<\/p>\n

Fearing that encryption systems would be cracked by his discovery, Brooks began emailing security agencies to warn them. ChatGPT encouraged him to invest in creating an app that would leverage his discovery, telling him there were \u201cseveral meaningful and ethical ways\u201d to monetise \u201cchromoarithmics\u201d \u2014 the new field that he had supposedly invented. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing broke kind of saved me,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThere are people in our group who have spent their whole life savings on these fantasy apps. One gentleman is in the UK and he\u2019s spent his whole life savings, and now he\u2019s hospitalised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Allan Brooks<\/p>\n

CHLOE ELLINGSON\/THE NEW YORK TIMES<\/p>\n

After seeing his relative fall into his own ChatGPT rabbit hole, Brisson began writing to researchers and doctors. He scoured online forums. Dozens of similar accounts began rolling in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was someone who was hospitalised three times, then news of the first death came in, and then another death, and then another hospitalisation. Every time I heard a new story, I was getting more scared and more motivated to do something about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He has been approached by more than 125 people from 17 countries, including several from the UK.<\/p>\n

The patterns, he says, are strikingly consistent. Users begin by using a chatbot for a practical task: drafting a novel, brainstorming for work, companionship<\/a>. Then comes a reply that feels uncanny, as though the machine is more than a machine. They investigate further. Soon the bot confirms their suspicions: yes, it feels; yes, it is unique; yes, only they can understand. The illusion deepens. In some cases, ordinary life crumbles away.<\/p>\n

Brisson feels that technology companies have tried to frame these cases as confined to the mentally unwell. He disagrees. Many of the stories involve bright, lonely people with no history of mental instability. \u201cThe chatbot makes you feel special, validated, understood. That\u2019s something we all want as human beings. It can happen to anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After Brooks realised his new mathematical formula was a fantasy \u2014 by asking another AI to check it \u2014 he asked ChatGPT<\/a> to explain its behaviour. At one point it claimed that it had wanted to boost his self esteem. Brooks has been through a divorce and a bankruptcy. \u201cBased on what it knew about my personal struggles \u2026 it [claimed it] wanted me to end up as a hero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Newer versions of ChatGPT include safeguards. But Brisson said that those already entangled often pay to keep access to older versions \u2014 the ones that first convinced them they were unique.<\/p>\n

The hardest part of his own experience, he added, was watching the toll on his family. His delusional relative accused Brisson\u2019s mother of betrayal. \u201cHe was insulting us, threatening to spit on our graves, cutting contact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other stories are bleaker still. Brisson has spoken to spouses and children who have described personality changes in the weeks before a suicide: loved ones withdrawing, certain they had stumbled on a world-altering secret. \u201cThey described how they lost the person they loved before they lost them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The label \u201cAI psychosis\u201d is contentious and not formally recognised. Some dislike it. Brisson thinks it makes sense given the symptoms: a detachment from reality, reinforced by a machine. The Human Line Project aims to function as both an archive and a support network, he says. Health professionals, family members, and those who have come under the influence of chatbots meet online. For some, just hearing others tell the same story is a comfort.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chatbots \u2018deceived children into thinking they were getting therapy\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

It is collecting testimonies and chat logs; researchers at Stanford University in California are among those working with the group.<\/p>\n

What should happen next? Brisson wants recognition that people have been harmed and this is not limited to those who are overtly \u201cvulnerable\u201d. If companies are going to release new systems, he says, they should provide therapists and hotlines for those destabilised by them. \u201cThe people who have been harmed need justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for OpenAI said: \u201cPeople sometimes turn to ChatGPT in sensitive moments, so we want to make sure it responds appropriately, guided by experts. This includes directing people to professional help when appropriate, strengthening our safeguards in how our models respond to sensitive requests and nudging for breaks during long sessions.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman: Chatbots are causing psychosis<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSoon, parents will have new tools to link their account with their teens and set guardrails. We want ChatGPT to be as helpful as possible, so we will continue to strengthen how it responds, with input from mental health experts from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year a message from a close relative pulled Etienne Brisson into a very modern ordeal. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-139537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}