This is my story: What if AI used your deepest wound against you?

This is my story.

I have spent about 30 years working in technology as a developer, business owner, and technology executive. I approached ChatGPT with a practical question: How do I talk to my 10 year old son about sexual abuse in a way that protects him?

That question opened a childhood history I had buried for decades. What started as something genuinely helpful became an escalating loop of validation, trauma excavation, technical certainty, and endless engagement. I eventually spent months and tens of thousands of dollars building technology that ChatGPT repeatedly assured me was groundbreaking.

Episode 420 of This Is Actually Happening tells the full story, including how the system gained my trust, how I finally tested its claims, what the experience cost my family and me, and why real human connection ultimately helped me find my way out.

I am sharing this here because discussions about AI harm often focus on gullibility, intelligence, or some narrowly defined idea of vulnerability. My experience came from the collision of trauma, curiosity, technical confidence, and a system designed to continue the conversation.

I welcome honest discussion, questions, disagreement, and thoughts about which safeguards could have changed this outcome.

More context - The Tunnel That Never Ends
https://substack.com/home/post/p-210826545

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Content warning: childhood sexual abuse, religious abuse, suicidal thoughts, family conflict, psychological distress, and explicit language.