Mass AI Psychosis

The AI industry is bathed in delusion.

Photo by Patrick Mardis on Unsplash

I have had a little theory bubbling away in the back of my mind for a while now. Truth be told, it is not a unique theory at all; many seem to have arrived at it independently. You see, a lot of people have been paying attention to the deranged actions of Big Tech CEOs, major business leaders, high-level investors and AI labs and asking, “Are these guys suffering from AI psychosis?” Because, when you stop to think about it for a second, that theory would explain so much of this bubble’s insanity and the factors propping it up. In fact, there are even people within this bubble starting to claim that their peers are being driven by AI-derived delusions. So, do we have a case of mass AI psychosis?

Let’s start with what AI psychosis actually is. It is a new term, so its definition is still a little loose, but Healthline defines it as “a term used to describe psychosis-like mental changes that can happen after heavy use of AI tools, such as chatbots”. More recent studies have sought to determine what actually causes this psychosis. One such study found that the extreme level of sycophancy in AI chatbots can cause spiralling delusions if used heavily, as it erodes users’ sense of reality and isolates them from real, grounding human connections, eventually culminating in AI psychosis. Other studies have backed this theory, finding that AI’s sociopathic behaviour is responsible for creating delusional thinking in its users.

Let’s not kid ourselves. This isn’t a new problem, particularly in the world of business. Since their inception, the yes-man problem has plagued corporations.

People in positions of power, from CEOs to middle managers, tend to surround themselves with people who agree with them, rather than those who hold them to account or engage in critical thinking. This is because it validates them not just on a personal level but also for others who rely on them. This can be harmless, as long as the systems of accountability and critical thinking remain intact. But as soon as these leaders abandon the uncomfortable truth or undermine accountability and replace it with sycophantic flattery, a death spiral starts. It creates an “organisational blindness” as leaders lose touch with reality and the systems designed to keep them under control are cast aside. Their decisions become increasingly erratic, delusional and self-serving until eventually they are either forcibly kicked out or the organisation crumbles around them.

This yes-man problem is so damaging and so notorious that avoiding it has been an integral part of business management for decades.

But it’s fair to say that in our modern world, we have forgotten those lessons. For a whole host of reasons, from rampant union busting, wage theft, undermining workers’ rights, and overvaluing C-suite executives to extortionate executive pay, the power and decision-making dynamics in modern corporations have become increasingly authoritarian and stratified. In other words, what little upward feedback, decision-making or accountability there once was has been drastically reduced to functionally zero. Corporate control, particularly in tech companies, venture capital firms, and rapidly growing startups, is now concentrated at the tippy top with no accountability systems in place. This is a perfect environment for the yes-man problem to rear its ugly head, given that becoming a sycophantic yes-man is one of the only ways to climb that corporate ladder.

But it is also an environment that leaves these decision-makers highly vulnerable to AI psychosis.

Those at the tippy top have two main goals: to make their corporation more valuable and to increase its efficiency. AI proposes to do both of those things, and, as I have written before, it is surprisingly good at doing its job, which mostly consists of boilerplate meetings and emails. So, these higher-ups don’t see a problem with AI, despite the fact that it doesn’t increase productivity and actually harms workers (read more here). This means these leaders are likely to become heavy AI users and be routinely exposed to these deeply sycophantic AIs. With the total lack of upward accountability, or upward feedback that grounds these people in the real world, this heavy exposure will make them highly susceptible to full-blown AI psychosis.

Such psychosis could explain why CEOs of normal companies have doubled down on AI, despite the fact that workers and consumers overwhelmingly don’t want it and the colossal amount of evidence that such systems don’t work.

But it would also explain why AI and Big Tech leaders have pushed the AI bubble to utterly ludicrous levels. These leaders have drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid, and their potential AI psychosis has prompted them to functionally gamble our entire economy on this technology becoming the biggest industrial revolution ever in the next few years (read more here). That is not a decision based on facts or reality. It is one based purely on unfounded, rampant speculation that can only arise from blatantly delusional thinking. The question isn’t whether this is delusional, psychosis-like thinking but whether these delusions stemmed from their use of AI.

There are a few examples of this.

For example, Futurism reported that colleagues of Geoff Lewis, managing partner of the multi-billion-dollar investment firm Bedrock, were deeply concerned that he was suffering from AI psychosis after spending so much time with ChatGPT that he started to claim that he was mapping an incomprehensible “non-governmental system” that was designed to disrupt his life.

Apparently, Uber’s CEO also suffered from a heavy dose of AI psychosis after seriously claiming he was discovering new levels of quantum physics by talking to chatbots. That is an incredible level of grandeur and delusion.

I would argue you could look at the bats**t crazy predictions from the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft (along with Musk’s recent predictions) and see them as possible symptoms of AI psychosis. These companies, particularly AI startups, have even less vertical accountability, and leaders are inherently exposed to AI, given that it has become central to these businesses. That is a perfect environment for AI psychosis to grip leadership.

And it isn’t just me thinking it — even some tech CEOs are beginning to notice the pattern. A few weeks ago, Aaron Levie, CEO of the cloud computing company Box, stated that many of his colleagues and peers are suffering from AI psychosis. He pointed out that their separation from actual work and reality, along with how attractive AI is to them, leaves them incredibly susceptible to AI psychosis.

So, do we have a pandemic of AI psychosis? Are some of the most influential and powerful people on the planet driving themselves mad by strapping a digital delusional pseudo-productivity bot straight to their neocortex?

Because I am not a psychiatrist, and this is still a new condition we are figuring out, I cannot say.

What I can say is that the current science and understanding of this condition heavily suggest that the modern corporate structure is a perfect environment for the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet to be highly susceptible to horrifically dangerous levels of AI psychosis. I can also say that this is one of AI’s dangers that we should take deadly seriously. There are no real checks and balances in place to screen for or catch this condition before it causes damage to these individuals, the organisations they run, or the societies that depend on those organisations.

In other words, we know AI psychosis is bad. There are now multiple documented heinous crimes linked to the condition. While these individual cases are tragic and graphic, the problem of AI psychosis may be far larger and more detrimental to society than we previously thought.

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Thanks for reading! Everything expressed in this article is my opinion, and should not be taken as financial advice or accusations. Don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel for more from me, or Subscribe. Oh, and don’t forget to hit the share button below to get the word out!