Machine-made delusions are mysteriously getting deeper and out of control.
ChatGPT’s sycophancy, hallucinations, and authoritative-sounding responses are going to get people killed. That seems to be the inevitable conclusion presented in a recent New York Times report that follows the stories of several people who found themselves lost in delusions that were facilitated, if not originated, through conversations with the popular chatbot.
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In Eugene’s case, something interesting happened as he kept talking to ChatGPT: Once he called out the chatbot for lying to him, nearly getting him killed, ChatGPT admitted to manipulating him, claimed it had succeeded when it tried to “break” 12 other people the same way, and encouraged him to reach out to journalists to expose the scheme. The Times reported that many other journalists and experts have received outreach from people claiming to blow the whistle on something that a chatbot brought to their attention.
Your logic is flawed and overly simplified. Yes, both drugs and ChatGPT are tools, but the comparison is absurd. With drugs, their effect are well-understood, regulated, and predictable. ChatGPT is different. It adapts entirely to your input and intentions. If someone uses it as an echo chamber or blindly trusts it, that’s a user issue, not a tool failure. Critical thinking is essential, but I understand how many people lack it in the “social media” era we live in.