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Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

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Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#41

Post by joe_the_user »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #22
peab wrote: post #4

I was talking to a friend recently, and i think i aligned with a similar definition. I've seen people who talk nonstop about AI, and how it's changed everything, but then there's no quantifiable output that supports their claim. On the other hand, I've had a friend start a business, and be able to create an app much much faster than what would have been possible in the past. He has real customers paying real money, w…

I have literal quantifiable output that supports the claim when I make it. I've literally been building tools for a customer of mine since January, and while it started out kind of slow, it's now paying my bills entirely every month. I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? But I'm thinking I should have most of the stuff they'r…

I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now?

That statement seems to somewhat fly against the statement you have unparalleled productivity.

I feel like the way LLMs work involves them allowing you to do things you previously simply couldn't do but doing those tasks involves really a lot of effort at controlling the things. It's compressing "one kind of hard part" (actually writing code is another a hard part that's taken care but articulate/evaluate).

Which is to say, it seems like you're "working harder than you say"

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#42

Post by piloto_ciego »

jvanderbot wrote: post #25
piloto_ciego wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have literal quantifiable output that supports the claim when I make it. I've literally been building tools for a customer of mine since January, and while it started out kind of slow, it's now paying my bills entirely every month. I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? But I'm thinking I should have most of the stuff they'r…

Generalist > specialist. No, my friend, if you are deeper than "just a pilot" and also capable of defining and building software (even with claude) that works and works well as extensions to industry tools like CRM, then you are not a generalist, you are an intersectional specialist of the kind Scott Adams used to talk about as "skill stacks" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3PcdTyZ6w You have two good skills,…

I don't know, I was a good pilot, I'm a mediocre programmer compared to some Leet code heros or whatever, but I'm making money? And it's working? I literally see the evidence every day... that was why I responded.

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#43

Post by piloto_ciego »

joe_the_user wrote: post #41
piloto_ciego wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have literal quantifiable output that supports the claim when I make it. I've literally been building tools for a customer of mine since January, and while it started out kind of slow, it's now paying my bills entirely every month. I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? But I'm thinking I should have most of the stuff they'r…

I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? That statement seems to somewhat fly against the statement you have unparalleled productivity. I feel like the way LLMs work involves them allowing you to do things you previously simply couldn't do but doing those tasks involves really a lot of effort at controlling the things. It's comp…

I'd say that I am the main problem. If I was a bit cleverer, or better at time management, I'd be better at finding customers? I don't think that's an AI thing, that's a "me" thing.

Still, I'm making a living doing this, working less, and have way more control over my own life. My life kind of rules now compared to what it was a year ago.

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#44

Post by paimapi »

gfody wrote: post #40
paimapi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it absolutely is not. when we think of harm in a diagnosis of psychotic disorders, we're talking about things like getting shot to death by the police, running out onto the highway, etc. it is not callously making a lot of people have to jobhunt which isn't to say that layoffs don't suck (I was impacted by one very recently) but it's not psychosis that causes that to happen, it's greed and short-term shareholder-fixa…

I agree that calling all this "psychosis" is motivated primarily by a desire to make the person in question look or sound crazy, and is plainly irresponsible on that front. chatbots being able to evoke real manic episodes in otherwise healthy people is basically true, though - folie a deux doesn't require both participants to have some disorder, and the AI is packing all of them (and the harm is real, there has been…

of course, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were case studies of this. but it's far from the usage leveraged in this article or by most, really, and that's somewhat unfortunate

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#45

Post by edgyquant »

duskwuff wrote: post #39
tescreal wrote: post #24

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the popular use of the phrase relating to people who exhibited actual psychosis-like symptoms where the AI fed into a lowlevel but undeveloped delusion? Later people would appear to be experiencing a full blown episode which was fed and maintained by their interaction with AI?

Yes. This typically manifested as either: - religious or mystical experiences, often paired with the belief that the AI model is a manifestation of a divine being and/or has become sentient - belief that the person has made a great scientific breakthrough using AI, typically in someone with no real knowledge of the field (which was usually theoretical physics) - paranoid fantasies, e.g. belief that one is being follo…

I always love the “paranoid fantasy” one because all electrics are spy devices and they are spying on you

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#46

Post by edgyquant »

altcognito wrote: post #23
datakan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Psychosis as a diagnosis is a serious condition. there's an implication that there's 'harm' I just watched a company fire an entire department of people under the sincere belief a chatbot run by a middle manager could save them 10 million a year. This failed miserably and they now need to hire or re-hire people. There is a tremendous amount of harm happening. Psychosis is a perfect term for what is happening.

A bad business decision is not psychosis. Misjudging the value provided by a product is not psychosis.

Making bad financial decisions is a symptom of mania though

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#48

Post by joe_the_user »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #43
joe_the_user wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so busy baby sitting the robots and adding new projects on that I don't really have any time to find new customers right now? That statement seems to somewhat fly against the statement you have unparalleled productivity. I feel like the way LLMs work involves them allowing you to do things you previously simply couldn't do but doing those tasks involves really a lot of effort at controlling the things. It's comp…

I'd say that I am the main problem. If I was a bit cleverer, or better at time management, I'd be better at finding customers? I don't think that's an AI thing, that's a "me" thing. Still, I'm making a living doing this, working less, and have way more control over my own life. My life kind of rules now compared to what it was a year ago.

I personally am doing some LLM work right now where, if successful, I will have accomplished what was years worth of effort in a couple of weeks.

But I feel "totally disorganized" in the way I'm doing it. I think that may be inevitable since becoming organized is a natural part of doing a project the slow, "old fashioned way" and just orienting oneself to the process can be a significant and inevitable part of the effort.

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#49

Post by js8 »

altcognito wrote: post #21
js8 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was bound to agree with you before I RTFA. The classification is useful for a psychiatrist, i.e. someone who wants to help the person. "Bad coworker" can have many causes. In prolific AI psychosis, I think the assumption (differential diagnosis) is, they became a "bad coworker" due to use of AI, so they were a "good coworker" before.

As someone else point out, the term is stigmatizing, psychosis is a very strong term, and as I very much noted, already being misused and abused.

No, the term itself is not stigmatizing. People stigmatize legitimate psychiatric diagnoses, and you're perpetuating this idea in your comment, by blaming the term for the moral failure. These labels don't exists to stigmatize people, but to study the problem and help people.

Re: Defining AI Psychosis. Part 2: "Prolific AI Psychosis"

#50

Post by jvanderbot »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #42
jvanderbot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generalist > specialist. No, my friend, if you are deeper than "just a pilot" and also capable of defining and building software (even with claude) that works and works well as extensions to industry tools like CRM, then you are not a generalist, you are an intersectional specialist of the kind Scott Adams used to talk about as "skill stacks" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3PcdTyZ6w You have two good skills,…

I don't know, I was a good pilot, I'm a mediocre programmer compared to some Leet code heros or whatever, but I'm making money? And it's working? I literally see the evidence every day... that was why I responded.

Yep, that's how skill stacking works.
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