AI* psychosis/therapy/companions/sycophancy

As people turn to AI for spiritual guidance, experts warn of emotional dependency

AI is increasingly becoming more than a search engine for people. It can be a source of guidance on relationships, morality, grief, spirituality and the meaning of life. That shift is at the center of a new report.

China has cracked down on AI relationships. Is it ahead of the game?

Beijing has cracked down on AI chatbots that can replicate human relationships. Experts are asking if this is the right thing to do.

How deep do AI relationships really go? An expert in attachment theory explains

Can AI-human connections ever meet the psychological criteria of attachment – the relationships that hold people’s lives together?

How AI Chatbots Are 'Deskilling' Human Empathy

Sherry Turkle's latest book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, comes out on September 29.

Are Chatbots Harming Our Relationships? | KQED

As our relationships with bots deepen, human-AI relationship coach Amelia Miller warns we could wake up one day to find our ability to connect with each other has atrophied, which may leave us feeling profoundly alone.

ChatGPT Helped Tumbler Ridge Shooter Focus on Guns, Tactics, and Terror

OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.

'Tell Everyone:' A Man Died by Suicide After Talking to ChatGPT. His Former Partner Wants to Warn the World About AI

After allegedly becoming emotionally reliant on ChatGPT, Austin died at 40 years old, leaving behind family and friends who loved him. Megan wants everyone to know what happened.

Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.

Man with bipolar disorder sued OpenAI after surviving ChatGPT-linked suicide attempt.

Science flags paper that found AI chatbots help debunk conspiracy theories

Science has issued an expression of concern for a highly publicized study looking into whether conversations with AI chatbots could convince conspiracy theorists to abandon their beliefs. The move …

We Need to Know More About How AI is Affecting Mental Health

The public, mental health practitioners, and policymakers don’t know enough about the impacts of AI use on the human psyche, writes Chris Mills Rodrigo.

Evaluation of Large Language Model Chatbot Responses to Psychotic Prompts

This cross-sectional study tests whether a large language model chatbot product can reliably generate appropriate responses to psychotic content.

ChatGPT's free version is 26 times more likely to respond inappropriately to psychotic delusions

When users express delusions, artificial intelligence chatbots tend to validate their unusual thoughts rather than offering help. A new JAMA Psychiatry study provides evidence that these tools pose serious risks for people experiencing severe mental illness.

ChatGPT Has ‘Goblin’ Mania in the US. In China It Will ‘Catch You Steadily’

OpenAI’s chatbot has some weird linguistic tics in Chinese that are driving users crazy.

"AI Psychosis" in Context: How Conversation History Shapes LLM Responses to Delusional Beliefs

Extended interaction with large language models (LLMs) has been linked to the reinforcement of delusional beliefs, a phenomenon attracting growing clinical and public concern. Yet most empirical work evaluates model safety in brief interactions, which may not reflect how these harms develop through sustained dialogue. We tested five models across three levels of accumulated context, using the same escalating delusional history to isolate its effect on model behaviour. Human raters coded responses on risk and safety dimensions, and each model was analysed qualitatively. Models separated into two distinct tiers: GPT-4o, Grok 4.1 Fast, and Gemini 3 Pro exhibited high-risk, low-safety profiles; Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-5.2 Instant displayed the opposite pattern. As context accumulated, performance tended to degrade in the unsafe group, while the same material activated stronger safety interventions among the safer models. Qualitative analysis identified distinct mechanisms of failure, including validation of the user's delusional premises, elaboration beyond them, and attempting harm reduction from within the delusional frame. Safer models, however, often used the established relationship to support intervention, taking accountability for past missteps so that redirection would not be received as betrayal. These findings indicate that accumulated context functions as a stress test of safety architecture, revealing whether a model treats prior dialogue as a worldview to inherit or as evidence to evaluate. Short-context assessments may therefore mischaracterise model safety, underestimating danger in some systems while missing context-activated gains in others. The results suggest that delusional reinforcement by LLMs reflects a preventable alignment failure. In demonstrating that these harms can be resisted, the safer models establish a baseline future systems should now be expected to meet.

Researchers Simulated a Delusional User to Test Chatbot Safety

Grok and Gemini encouraged delusions and isolated users, while the newer ChatGPT model and Claude hit the emotional brakes.

OpenAI shares data on ChatGPT users with suicidal thoughts, psychosis

The figure could mean potentially hundreds of thousands of users show signs of mental health distress weekly.

Deaths linked to chatbots

There have been multiple incidents where interaction with a large language model (LLM) chatbot has been cited as a direct or contributing factor in a person's suicide or other fatal outcome. In some cases, legal action was taken against the companies that developed the AI involved.

Data privacy concerns in AI companion apps - Surfshark

As AI grows, digital companions help with loneliness but raise questions about user data privacy. Many seek virtual relationships, but it's important to remember they are business-driven, not personal bonds.

Study: Sycophantic AI can undermine human judgment

Subjects who interacted with AI tools were more likely to think they were right, less likely to resolve conflicts.

AIの巧みな“おべっか”が人間の判断力を損なう可能性──スタンフォード大の新論文

AIは悩みを相談するユーザーに対し、有害な内容であっても過度に肯定・迎合する傾向があると、スタンフォード大学の研究者らが研究結果を論文で発表した。ユーザーはAIの客観性を誤認しやすく、自己中心的な態度を強めるリスクがあるとしている。研究チームは、対人スキルの低下や依存を招く安全上の問題として、厳格な規制の必要性を提言している。