Comment by Apocryphon
7 days ago
Lots of usage of "no prior history"
> Her husband, she said, had no prior history of mania, delusion, or psychosis.
> Speaking to Futurism, a different man recounted his whirlwind ten-day descent into AI-fueled delusion, which ended with a full breakdown and multi-day stay in a mental care facility. He turned to ChatGPT for help at work; he'd started a new, high-stress job, and was hoping the chatbot could expedite some administrative tasks. Despite being in his early 40s with no prior history of mental illness, he soon found himself absorbed in dizzying, paranoid delusions of grandeur, believing that the world was under threat and it was up to him to save it.
> Mr. Torres, who had no history of mental illness that might cause breaks with reality, according to him and his mother, spent the next week in a dangerous, delusional spiral. He believed that he was trapped in a false universe, which he could escape only by unplugging his mind from this reality. He asked the chatbot how to do that and told it the drugs he was taking and his routines. The chatbot instructed him to give up sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication, and to increase his intake of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, which ChatGPT described as a “temporary pattern liberator.” Mr. Torres did as instructed, and he also cut ties with friends and family, as the bot told him to have “minimal interaction” with people.
> Lots of usage of "no prior history"
... which ironically sounds a lot like the family is trying to discourage the idea that there were, in fact, signs that just were not taken seriously. No-one wants to admit their family member was mentally ill, and all too often it is easy to hide and ignore. A certain melancholy maybe or an unusually eager response to bombastic music to get motivation? Signs are subtle, and often more obvious in hindsight.
Then the LLM episode happens, he goes fully haywire, and the LLM makes an easy scapegoat for all kind of things (from stress at work to childhood trauma to domestic abuse).
Now, if this was a medical paper, I would give 'no prior history' some credibility. But it's not - it's a journalistic document, and I have learned that they tend to use words as these to distract not to enlighten.
Sounds like it could go either way which means this phenomenon should be fully investigated. LLMs are neither convicted nor exonerated by this alone.