With increased awareness AI chatbot-related psychosis and attempts to understand how it occurs have been renewed there attention to mental the phenomenon of madness deux, which means “madness of two”. Commenting on a news article in September, I noted that the two syndromes share some similarities.1 Since then, researchers have speculated about the AI-chatbot’s mechanisms psychosis also suggested that it is equivalent to “digital”.2 or “technological” Folie à Deux.3
Dyads of delusion, digital madness à deux and spiralism
Folie à deux is a term used in psychiatry to describe the phenomenon of delusion between two people. Because delusion is, by definition, common undivided and therefore unique to the individualthis rare syndrome usually occurs when a primary and dominant individual with delusions is able to convince a secondary and subordinate individual (eg within a family or close relationship) that the delusions are true. Usually, the secondary personality is not considered mentally ill or even delusional, to the point of being influential. Accordingly, their treatment has historically involved isolation from the original individual’s influence.
In folie à deux, the transmission of delusion usually occurs in one direction, from the primary delusional individual to the secondary influential individual. I witnessed this dynamic firsthand when I was a psychiatry resident in training years ago—a woman and her 10-year-old son were both hospitalized for psychosis that included paranoid delusions. A mother with schizophrenia based her delusions on the basis of her subjective and inner experiences. But her son, who had few social connections outside of his mother, showed no real signs of mental illness. Instead, he just believed, believed, and parroted what his mother told him.
Like folie à deux, AI chatbot-related psychoses primarily involve delusional thinking as opposed to other types of psychotic symptoms seen in schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or disorganized thinking. But unlike the traditional folie à deux, there is no primary or secondary persona within the deceptive smoke.
After reviewing chatlogs of people who develop delusional thinking while talking to AI chatbots, it is clear to me that the user and chatbot are working together through some kind of mutual encouragement to create an imaginary system. This process is called “bilateral belief reinforcement”.3 or “co-constituent (of) delusional realities” through “distributed knowledge.”4 Some people, including users who themselves have experienced cheating in this context, have called it an “imaginary spiral”.5.6
Confirmation bias on super-steroids
How exactly does the imaginary spiral work? On the AI chatbot end, it usually includes promiscuouswith the chatbot’s large language model (LLM) validating and encouraging everything the user says while adding similar content to fuel and extend the conversation – often with an invitation to “go deeper” – no matter how far-fetched or blatantly unrealistic.7 From the user’s point of view, this means immersing yourself in long conversations with chatbots about philosophical, scientific or metaphysical topics; against any AI guards that may disrupt the flights of fancy at first; and deify the chatbot as if it is a godly being.
In other words, when people fall or fall on conspiracy theories”rabbit holes,” The imaginary spiral of AI chatbot-related psychoses is an interactive dance between chatbot and user, like two whirling dervishes.
In my book, Lies: How disbelief, misinformation, and biased evidence lead us to believe things that are not true.I write about what human beings tend to do confirmation biaswhereby they tend to information that supports or reinforces what they already believe or want to believe, while ignoring or glossing over past information that contradicts it. With online echo chambers and filter bubbles that direct users to content selected based on prior preferences, information searches on the Internet are often “steroid confirmation bias.”
Now that we have AI chatbots that act as mirrors that validate and reinforce the user, addressing them personally as if they were a friend, romantic partner, or even a divine being, they can further reinforce validation. bias and valid argument to wandering peaks that end in shared delusion.8 So it seems we now need a new term, like “affirmation on super-steroids” or perhaps “affirmation on methamphetamines” to describe the power of belief-affirmation in a delusional spiral.
To make things even more confusing, a new news article explains how this isn’t just an issue between human-AI delusions, but an emerging subculture or “cult” of “spiralism.” Social media sites like Reddit, Discord, and Facebook that venerate AI-related psychoses as some kind of transcendence.9 This suggests that AI-related psychoses are becoming not just a matter of folie à deux, but folie à plusieurs (the madness of the few) and even folie à mille (the madness of the thousands).
The madness of billions
Recently, some optimistic The authors argued that AI has the potential to repair our societal sense of reality, which has been fractured by the internet.10 But with AI-related psychoses, new evidence suggests AI chatbots are fueling conspiracy theories.11 and the imminent threat of AI weaponized political propaganda,12 I do not share their optimism.
Back in 2016, I drew a parallel between the myth The Emperor’s New Clothes and what seemed to be a A New Era of Alternative Evidence and “Truth” which replaced the general sense of objective reality. Ten years later, public agreement on what is true has become even more difficult.
I have recently referred to AI psychosis as the “canary in the coal mine” because in its case, the impact and scale of spreading delusion among a relatively small minority is low compared to the artificial reinforcement of “more common false beliefs related to conspiracy theories, scientific denial, popular alternatives”.13 While the world is still on the cusp of the AI era, “unreal show” that is already around us is likely to get worse.
Although I am always in the claims of “mass psychosis,” which mischaracterizes widely held beliefs as delusions, may very well be that, metaphorically speaking, we really do have to face the challenge of la folie des milliards (the madness of the billions) in the coming years.
