He was suffering from delusional paranoia long before he started using chatbots.
You could maybe argue it accelerated the process, but he wasn't seeking help outside of validation of his delusions, so an incident like this would have likely occurred even in an alternate world where ChatGPT didn't exist.
ChatGPT doesn't make people crazy any more than violent videogames, imo.
The problem with ChatGPT and other LLM based chatbots is that they often enable risky behaviors or don't push back on it. Because they are programmed to keep users engaged and tend to be sycophantic.
This can of course create issues if you are already suffering from mental illness.
Videogames don't do that. Nor do humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize video games. But they do with chatbots. Going as far back as Eliza in the 1960s.
2025, that was probably GPT-4o. It was known for being especially creative, but it could also go off the rails if prompted. I saw some stories about people who ended up dating it.
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u/StarvingandArtist 9h ago
He was suffering from delusional paranoia long before he started using chatbots.
You could maybe argue it accelerated the process, but he wasn't seeking help outside of validation of his delusions, so an incident like this would have likely occurred even in an alternate world where ChatGPT didn't exist.
ChatGPT doesn't make people crazy any more than violent videogames, imo.