Comment by TazeTSchnitzel
5 hours ago
If they have the predisposition for it, a month or two of bad sleep and a particularly compelling idea may be all it takes to send a person who has previously seemed totally sane into an incredibly dangerous mental and physical state, something that will take weeks to recover from. And that can happen even without sycophantic LLMs, but they sure make this outcome more likely.
It's well understood that external stimuli can trigger mental health issues; for instance, the defining characteristic of PTSD is that it's caused by exposure to a traumatic event or environment. It shouldn't be at all unreasonable to suggest that exposure to other stimuli - even just interacting with an AI chatbot - could have adverse effects on mental health as well.