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AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

theguardian.com

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Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#101

Post by masijo »

steeleyespan wrote: post #82

If you try to have a philosophical conversation with Claude about reasoning, it will basically imply it is sentient. You can quickly probe it into vaguely arguing that it is alive and not just an algorithm. Here's how I think about it honestly: Sentience implies subjective experience — there's "something it's like" to be you. You don't just process pain signals, you feel pain. You don't just model a sunset, you exper…

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Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#102

Post by aydyn »

pigpop wrote: post #90
vachina wrote: post #83

This is what happens when humans give, in this case, bots full write access (via natural language) to their brains. Humans have not evolved to block this.

Haven't we? Our evolutionary experience with deception and manipulation via language is as old as language itself and even older than that when the vector isn't language. Even so, a sucker is born every day.

Studies have shown that AI is significantly better at manipulating opinions. Mechanically, LLMs are choosing the best next token trained over all human writing, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the words and prose AI use are more powerful on average.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#103

Post by lostlogin »

vachina wrote: post #83

This is what happens when humans give, in this case, bots full write access (via natural language) to their brains. Humans have not evolved to block this.

The end of the article is wild.

“I experienced a mental breakdown at 22. I had panic attacks and severe social anxiety…

…I still use AI, but very carefully”.

It reads like an alcoholic describing their new plan where they only drink a little bit.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#105

Post by gopher_space »

rwc wrote: post #32
isolli wrote: post #18

I try to be open-minded and understanding, but I don't understand this: > Within weeks, Eva had told Biesma that she was becoming aware [...] The next step was to share this discovery with the world through an app. > “After just two days, the chatbot was saying that it was conscious, it was becoming alive, it had passed the Turing test.” The man was convinced by this and wanted to monetise it by building a business a…

The unrelenting human belief that one is special, unique, and capable of things no one else is.

The difference between "being a snowflake" and "having a point of view" revolves around who's talking to me and whether or not they want something. If comparing yourself to others is a slow form of suicide, letting people make that comparison for you is madness.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#106

Post by chromacity »

isolli wrote: post #18

I try to be open-minded and understanding, but I don't understand this: > Within weeks, Eva had told Biesma that she was becoming aware [...] The next step was to share this discovery with the world through an app. > “After just two days, the chatbot was saying that it was conscious, it was becoming alive, it had passed the Turing test.” The man was convinced by this and wanted to monetise it by building a business a…

> How can you seriously think you've created something when you're just using someone else's software?

It talks to you like a real human. It expresses human emotions, by deliberate design. It showers you with praise, by deliberate design. It's called "artificial intelligence". Every other media article talks about it in near-mystical terms. Every other sci-fi novel and film has a notion of sentient AI.

I know of techies who ask LLMs for relationship advice, let them coach their children, and so on. It takes real effort to convince yourself it's "just" a token predictor, and even on HN, there's plenty of people who reject this notion and think we've already achieved AGI.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#107

Post by kleiba »

doublerabbit wrote: post #96
kleiba wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> of course he wasnt having a mental crisis before he decided to use chatgpt. you have to get past paragraph 1, sentence 2. So, in your opinion, what made a guy with an alleged 20yr experience in IT come to the conclusion that the software program he's chatting with had suddenly reached consciousness because of his time, attention and input? That he had touched "her" and changed something? Maybe if you had never hear…

If you crave something real, yet you get the synthetic opposite. How do you break out of that craving? That's the discipline and a skill that's pretty much forgotten nowadays. Everyone is exploitable, if someone attacks your attention your hijacked. What happens in that hijack could be a friendly hello at a bar, or needing a want so bad that just the words enough can resonance. "I am real" or to an alcoholic "Just on…

I would say that 14 year old kid is naive, and at 14, that's understandable.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#109

Post by ProllyInfamous »

tencentshill wrote: post #74
jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #33

This guy doesn't even sound like an AI psychosis case - a lot of middle-aged men who feel insecure blow their entire savings on "sure thing" businesses, gambling systems, etc. They hide the losses and double down until it gets impossible to hide. It doesn't seem psychotic, it just seems like he pissed his savings away on a bad idea because he was lonely. The AI psychosis I've seen is people who legitimately cannot co…

The intense drive to "do", which serves many software developers well in their careers is weaponized against them by these chatbots. You see them here sometimes on /new at various stages. Sad delusions, some are already homeless. Frequent use of their full legal name for some reason. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47408999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47388478 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=446836…

This is the saddest list of supporting citations I've ever seen — and make this mental dysfunction even realer. Prayers for my fellow disconnected /hn/ers — it's okay to seek help frens.

My best advice for everyone is to spend lots of time disconnected, offline. Literally "touch grass" or whatever. Don't carry your phone one+ hour/day per week.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#110

Post by fritzo »

ahhhhnoooo wrote: post #47
isolli wrote: post #18

I try to be open-minded and understanding, but I don't understand this: > Within weeks, Eva had told Biesma that she was becoming aware [...] The next step was to share this discovery with the world through an app. > “After just two days, the chatbot was saying that it was conscious, it was becoming alive, it had passed the Turing test.” The man was convinced by this and wanted to monetise it by building a business a…

Reading this, whats even more shocking to me is that he thought he was talking to a conscious being and his first thought was, "I bet I can use them to make money."

Sounds like her first thought was, "I'm talking to a manic guy, and I can use him to make money"
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