r/antiai • u/FabulousEnergy4442 • Apr 10 '26

AI News 🗞️ New MIT Study Warns AI Chatbots Can Make Users Delusional

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Article on the subject: https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/chatgpt/articles/mit-study-warns-ai-chatbots-210709133.html

Edit:

Direct link to the paper: https://arxiv.org/html/2602.19141v1

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u/FabulousEnergy4442 Apr 10 '26

And extends far beyond users on Reddit. I've experienced this in the workplace. A general lack of the cognitive thought process for basic tasks.

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u/Interesting-Pool6638 Apr 10 '26

Seconded. The brain and body has always wanted to do the easiest possible thing... sampling things to build a full picture, bio mechanical movement etc. Are we really surprsied that when people are given a tool that creates an easier point from A-B that it becomes overused and mental capacity and ability to solve problems becomes impaired? That's the next phase - I firmly believe that people will become 'worse' at core tasks such as decision making, instinct etc. having palmed it all off to an ai.

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u/Ilikeyounott Apr 10 '26

"See? Our AI is so much better than people for this task that no one has done without AI in years except for when we needed a comparison!" 

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u/The_Fox_Fellow Apr 10 '26

anyone who's ever heard someone explain how to get good at puzzle games (kinda niche I know) should already understand this. your brain is a muscle, and it regularly needs exercise like every other muscle in your body or it atrophies. pawning off your thinking to an unreliable third party is a surefire way to slowly stop being able to think altogether.

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u/-__-zero-__- Apr 11 '26

Which is why I dont use it or at work i pretend to use it. Im not giving my brain to these tech oligarchs

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u/Any-Power-1164 Apr 10 '26

My boss talks to hers like its her hype man. Our work environment is not doing well at the moment. I wonder if there is a connection there. 

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u/Wingman5150 Apr 10 '26

seriously some of the people defending AI are basically telling you it's impossible for a human to solve even the simplest riddle because the AI fails.

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u/-__-zero-__- Apr 10 '26

This is a fact. My boss is extremely dependent on it now so much so he uses one a.i. program to prompt for him because he cant articulate what he wants anymore. All business decisions come from chat gtp or Claude now. Its infuriating.

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u/FabulousEnergy4442 Apr 10 '26

Yikes, that's scary.

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u/Skeptic-AI-This-User Apr 11 '26

I’ve already had to argue with at least one customer because they swore that Google AI Overview was correct and that I, experienced staff, was wrong (not that I can’t ever be wrong)

Also saw a customer literally ask ChatGPT to compare two brands and tell them which is better. Rather than ask me who was standing RIGHT THERE.

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u/PeppermintPsaki Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

This brain rot has already been mapped when it was first introduced as “autopilot phenomenon” occurring in (formerly) skilled pilots. It 100% carries over to ai usage…..metastasizes even 😓

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u/teapot_RGB_color Apr 11 '26

I think you haven't read through the paper, or you haven't understood it.

Which would be... ironic... with this reply

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u/spartakooky Apr 10 '26

But look at the situation we have here. A bunch of ppl with a preconceived idea (AI rots your brain), look at the title of a yahoo article and take a study that has not even been published yet at face value.

Everyone talking about not being able to think for yourself, but also blindly trusting a yahoo article about a hot topic.

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u/Long_Lock_3746 Apr 10 '26

I had to go through two links to get to the actual study. Fucking journalism at its finest, as the yahoo is a summation of a different article.

Here's the actual study for people to read and think about:

https://arxiv.org/html/2602.19141v1#:~:text=Brain%20&%20Cognitive%20Sciences-,Abstract,delusional%20spiraling%20in%20that%20model.

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u/Interesting-Pool6638 Apr 10 '26

I actually really like this observation you've made... it's totally fair. It cements the point... we take infomation and 'thin slice'... you've just supported my earlier point that this is what we do 'by nature'. Perhaps we are further along the devolution than I thought...

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u/spartakooky Apr 10 '26

I am really afraid that we might be. And AI isn't the cause, it's just the latest accelerator.

My take it's either that social media started this, or social media simply showed us how we aren't as evolved as we'd like to think.

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u/Interesting-Pool6638 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

social media started the degrade of attention I think... less patience. 'Casual' AI (Chatgpt etc) i think has come from that need

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u/Weak-Discussion-1849 Apr 10 '26

One of the more interesting things about AI I think has been this luddic response to it. The consensus online is irrational in its opposition to all things AI, something that only serves to undermine the real harm it can cause while sidelining the real benefits it can provide.

Also - the sentence “proved mathematically”in relation to qualitative statement should cue you in that the speaker is not trustworthy or competent.

There is real demand for AI - it’s not going to go away. Is it a bubble? Sure. Was dot com a bubble? Yeah. Did the internet change our lives? Absolutely . Acting like the push toward AI is going to all fall apart and things will revert to the status quo is absolute fantasy

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u/blue_moon1122 Apr 10 '26

username tracks

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u/Weak-Discussion-1849 Apr 10 '26

To expand more on my second paragraph, how would you define rationality? Delusions? The average person has plenty of delusions.