Skip to content

A Prominent OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Suffering a ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say

Technology
52 32 0
  • This post did not contain any content.
  • This post did not contain any content.

    I have no love for the ultra-wealthy, and this feckless tech bro is no exception, but this story is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks ChatGPT or any other chatbot is even a half-decent replacement for therapy.

    It's not, and study after study, expert after expert continues to reinforce that reality. I understand that therapy is expensive, and it's not always easy to find a good therapist, but you'd be better off reading a book or finding a support group than deluding yourself with one of these AI chatbots.

  • This post did not contain any content.

    I don't know if he's unstable or a whistleblower. It does seem to lean towards unstable. 🤷

    "This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable."

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."

    "It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."

    "The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."

  • I have no love for the ultra-wealthy, and this feckless tech bro is no exception, but this story is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks ChatGPT or any other chatbot is even a half-decent replacement for therapy.

    It's not, and study after study, expert after expert continues to reinforce that reality. I understand that therapy is expensive, and it's not always easy to find a good therapist, but you'd be better off reading a book or finding a support group than deluding yourself with one of these AI chatbots.

    It’s insane to me that anyone would think these things are reliable for something as important as your own psychology/health.

    Even using them for coding which is the one thing they’re halfway decent at will lead to disastrous code if you don’t already know what you’re doing.

  • I don't know if he's unstable or a whistleblower. It does seem to lean towards unstable. 🤷

    "This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable."

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."

    "It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."

    "The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."

    Yeah, that's pretty unstable.

  • This post did not contain any content.

    Link to the video:
    https://xcancel.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945212979173097560

    Dude's not a "public figure" in my world, but he certainly seems to need help. He sounds like an AI hallucination incarnate.

  • I don't know if he's unstable or a whistleblower. It does seem to lean towards unstable. 🤷

    "This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable."

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."

    "It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."

    "The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."

    "Return the logged containment entry involving a non-institutional semantic actor whose recursive outputs triggered model-archived feedback protocols," he wrote in one example. "Confirm sealed classification and exclude interpretive pathology."

    He's lost it. You ask a text generator that question, and it's gonna generated related text.

    Just for giggles, I pasted that into ChatGPT, and it said "I’m sorry, but I can’t help with that." But I asked nicely, and it said "Certainly. Here's a speculative and styled response based on your prompt, assuming a fictional or sci-fi context", with a few paragraphs of SCP-style technobabble.

    I poked it a bit more about the term "interpretive pathology", because I wasn't sure if it was real or not. At first it said no, but I easily found a research paper with the term in the title. I don't know how much ChatGPT can introspect, but it did produce this:

    The term does exist in niche real-world usage (e.g., in clinical pathology). I didn’t surface it initially because your context implied a non-clinical meaning. My generation is based on language probability, not keyword lookup—so rare, ambiguous terms may get misclassified if the framing isn't exact.

    Which is certainly true, but just confirmation bias. I could easily get it to say the opposite.

  • Link to the video:
    https://xcancel.com/GeoffLewisOrg/status/1945212979173097560

    Dude's not a "public figure" in my world, but he certainly seems to need help. He sounds like an AI hallucination incarnate.

    Inb4 "AI Delusion Disorder" gets added to a future DSM edition

  • Yeah, that's pretty unstable.

    I don't use chatgpt, his diatribe seems to be setting off a lot of red flags for people. Is it the people coming after me part? He's a billionaire, so I could see people coming after him. I have no idea of what he's describing though. From a layman that isn't a developer or psychiatrist, it seems like he's questioning the ethics and it's killing people. Am I not getting it right?

  • I don't use chatgpt, his diatribe seems to be setting off a lot of red flags for people. Is it the people coming after me part? He's a billionaire, so I could see people coming after him. I have no idea of what he's describing though. From a layman that isn't a developer or psychiatrist, it seems like he's questioning the ethics and it's killing people. Am I not getting it right?

    It reads like "word salad", which from my understanding is common for people with developed schizophrenia.

    His text is more coherent (on a relative basis), but it still has that world salad feel to it.

  • I don't know if he's unstable or a whistleblower. It does seem to lean towards unstable. 🤷

    "This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. It just inverts signal until the person carrying it looks unstable."

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. It reframes you until the people around you start wondering if the problem is just you. Partners pause, institutions freeze, narrative becomes untrustworthy in your proximity."

    "It lives in soft compliance delays, the non-response email thread, the 'we're pausing diligence' with no followup," he says in the video. "It lives in whispered concern. 'He's brilliant, but something just feels off.' It lives in triangulated pings from adjacent contacts asking veiled questions you'll never hear directly. It lives in narratives so softly shaped that even your closest people can't discern who said what."

    "The system I'm describing was originated by a single individual with me as the original target, and while I remain its primary fixation, its damage has extended well beyond me," he says. "As of now, the system has negatively impacted over 7,000 lives through fund disruption, relationship erosion, opportunity reversal and recursive eraser. It's also extinguished 12 lives, each fully pattern-traced. Each death preventable. They weren't unstable. They were erased."

    isn't this just paranoid schizophrenia? i don't think chatgpt can cause that

  • isn't this just paranoid schizophrenia? i don't think chatgpt can cause that

    I have no professional skills in this area, but I would speculate that the fellow was already predisposed to schizophrenia and the LLM just triggered it (can happen with other things too like psychedelic drugs).

  • It reads like "word salad", which from my understanding is common for people with developed schizophrenia.

    His text is more coherent (on a relative basis), but it still has that world salad feel to it.

    I see what you're saying, but here is what I think he's describing:

    • First paragraph: He's saying that there is a hidden operation to take down people.
    • Second paragraph: He's saying that it's vague enough and has no definitive answer, so it sends people down loopholes with no end.
    • Third paragraph: This is the one that sounds the most unstable. He's saying that people are implying he's unstable and he's sensing it in their words and actions. That they're not replying like they used to and are making him feel crazy. Basically, the true meaning of gaslighting.
    • Fourth paragraph: There is one individual behind it and the gaslighting is killing people. This one also supports instability.

    Edit: I just watched the entire video. He's unstable 100%

  • I don't use chatgpt, his diatribe seems to be setting off a lot of red flags for people. Is it the people coming after me part? He's a billionaire, so I could see people coming after him. I have no idea of what he's describing though. From a layman that isn't a developer or psychiatrist, it seems like he's questioning the ethics and it's killing people. Am I not getting it right?

    I'm a developer, and this is 100% word salad.

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. ..."

    This is actual nonsense. Recursion has to do with algorithms, and it's when you call a function from within itself.

    def func_a(input=True):
      if input is True:
        func_a(True)
      else:
        return False
    

    My program above would recur infinitely, but hopefully you can get the gist.

    Anyway, it sounds like he's talking about people, not algorithms. People can't recur. We aren't "recursive," so whatever he thinks he means, it isn't based in reality. That plus the nebulous talk of being replaced by some unseen entity reek of paranoid delusions.

    I'm not saying that is what he has, but it sure does have a similar appearance, and if he is in his right mind (doubt it), he doesn't have any clue what he's talking about.

  • I see what you're saying, but here is what I think he's describing:

    • First paragraph: He's saying that there is a hidden operation to take down people.
    • Second paragraph: He's saying that it's vague enough and has no definitive answer, so it sends people down loopholes with no end.
    • Third paragraph: This is the one that sounds the most unstable. He's saying that people are implying he's unstable and he's sensing it in their words and actions. That they're not replying like they used to and are making him feel crazy. Basically, the true meaning of gaslighting.
    • Fourth paragraph: There is one individual behind it and the gaslighting is killing people. This one also supports instability.

    Edit: I just watched the entire video. He's unstable 100%

    I believe this sort of paranoia and delusional thinking are extremely common with schizophrenia.

    The motifs in his word salad likely reflect his life experience.

  • I believe this sort of paranoia and delusional thinking are extremely common with schizophrenia.

    The motifs in his word salad likely reflect his life experience.

    Yeah, I just edited my comment. I watched the video and a lot wasn't included in the article. He's 100% not right.

  • I'm a developer, and this is 100% word salad.

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. ..."

    This is actual nonsense. Recursion has to do with algorithms, and it's when you call a function from within itself.

    def func_a(input=True):
      if input is True:
        func_a(True)
      else:
        return False
    

    My program above would recur infinitely, but hopefully you can get the gist.

    Anyway, it sounds like he's talking about people, not algorithms. People can't recur. We aren't "recursive," so whatever he thinks he means, it isn't based in reality. That plus the nebulous talk of being replaced by some unseen entity reek of paranoid delusions.

    I'm not saying that is what he has, but it sure does have a similar appearance, and if he is in his right mind (doubt it), he doesn't have any clue what he's talking about.

    You're right. I watched the video and a lot wasn't included in the article.

  • I'm a developer, and this is 100% word salad.

    "It doesn't suppress content," he continues. "It suppresses recursion. If you don't know what recursion means, you're in the majority. I didn't either until I started my walk. And if you're recursive, the non-governmental system isolates you, mirrors you, and replaces you. ..."

    This is actual nonsense. Recursion has to do with algorithms, and it's when you call a function from within itself.

    def func_a(input=True):
      if input is True:
        func_a(True)
      else:
        return False
    

    My program above would recur infinitely, but hopefully you can get the gist.

    Anyway, it sounds like he's talking about people, not algorithms. People can't recur. We aren't "recursive," so whatever he thinks he means, it isn't based in reality. That plus the nebulous talk of being replaced by some unseen entity reek of paranoid delusions.

    I'm not saying that is what he has, but it sure does have a similar appearance, and if he is in his right mind (doubt it), he doesn't have any clue what he's talking about.

    People can’t recur.

    You're not the boss of me!

  • I have no professional skills in this area, but I would speculate that the fellow was already predisposed to schizophrenia and the LLM just triggered it (can happen with other things too like psychedelic drugs).

    Yup. LLMs aren't making people crazy, but they are making crazy people worse

  • People can’t recur.

    You're not the boss of me!

    And you're not the boss of me. Hmmm, maybe we do recur... /s

  • 1 Stimmen
    1 Beiträge
    16 Aufrufe
    Niemand hat geantwortet
  • China is rushing to develop its AI-powered censorship system

    Technology technology
    2
    1
    39 Stimmen
    2 Beiträge
    22 Aufrufe
    why0y@lemmy.mlW
    This concept is the enemy of the a centuries old idealistic societal pillar of the West: Liberté, Libertas... this has blessed so many of us in the West, and I beg that it doesn't leave. Something beautiful and as sacred as the freedom from forced labor and the freedom to choose your trade, is the concept of the free and unbounded innocence of voices asking their leaders and each other these questions, to determine amongst ourselves what is fair and not, for our own betterment and the beauty of free enterprise. It's not so much that the Chinese state is an awful power to behold (it is and fuck Poohhead)... but this same politic is on the rise in the West and it leads to war. It always leads to war. And now the most automated form of state and corporate propaganda the world has ever seen is in the hands of a ruthless ruling class that can, has, and will steal bread from children's hands, and literally take the medicine from the sick to pad their pockets. Such is the twisted fate of society and likely always will be. We need to fight and not with prayers; this moment is God forsaking us to behold how the spirit breaks and what the people want to fight for as ruthlessly as the others do to steal our bread.
  • The Decline of Usability: Revisited | datagubbe.se

    Technology technology
    8
    67 Stimmen
    8 Beiträge
    43 Aufrufe
    R
    I blame the idea of the 00s and 10s that there should be some "Zen" in computer UIs and that "Zen" is doing things wrong with the arrogant tone of "you don't understand it". Associated with Steve Jobs, but TBH Google as well. And also another idea of "you dummy talking about ergonomics can't be smarter than this big respectable corporation popping out stylish unusable bullshit". So - pretense of wisdom and taste, under which crowd fashion is masked, almost aggressive preference for authority over people actually having maybe some wisdom and taste due to being interested in that, blind trust into whatever tech authority you chose for yourself, because, if you remember, in the 00s it was still perceived as if all people working in anything connected to computers were as cool as aerospace engineers or naval engineers, some kind of elite, including those making user applications, objective flaw (or upside) of the old normal UIs - they are boring, that's why UIs in video games and in fashionable chat applications (like ICQ and Skype), not talking about video and audio players, were non-standard like always, I think the solution would be in per-application theming, not in breaking paradigms, again, like with ICQ and old Skype and video games, I prefer it when boredom is thought with different applications having different icons and colors, but the UI paradigm remains the same, I think there was a themed IE called LOTR browser which I used (ok, not really, I used Opera) to complement ICQ, QuickTime player and BitComet, all mentioned had standard paradigm and non-standard look.
  • 136 Stimmen
    29 Beiträge
    143 Aufrufe
    J
    Yeah, I was going to say that TV wasn't much of a news source to begin with. The real issue is that social media for news is probably worse - now everyone can be spoonfed the news they want.
  • Palantir hits new highs amid Israel-Iran conflict

    Technology technology
    4
    1
    41 Stimmen
    4 Beiträge
    31 Aufrufe
    W
    I think both peace and war are profitable. But those that profit from war may be more pushy than those that profit from peace, and so may get their way even as an unpopular minority . Unless, the left (usually more pro peace) learns a few lessons from the right and places good outcomes above the holier than thou moral purity. "I've never made anyone uncomfortable" is not the merit badge that some think it is. Of course the left can never be a mirror copy of the right because the left cannot afford to give as few fucks about anything as the right (who represent the already-haves economic incumbents; it's not called the "fuck you money" for nothing). But the left can be way tougher and nuancedly uncompromising and even calculatingly and carefully millitant. Might does not make right but might DOES make POLICY. You need both right and might to live under a good policy. Lotta good it does anyone to be right and insightful on all the issues and have zero impact anywhere.
  • Forced E-Waste PCs And The Case Of Windows 11’s Trusted Platform

    Technology technology
    116
    1
    317 Stimmen
    116 Beiträge
    534 Aufrufe
    K
    I was pretty lucky in university as most of my profs were either using cross platform stuff or Linux exclusive software. I had a single class that wanted me using windows stuff and I just dropped that one. Awesome that you're getting back into it, it's definitely the best it's ever been (and you're right that Steam cracked the code). It sounds like you probably know what you're doing if you're running Linux VMs and stuff, but feel free to shoot me a PM if you run into any questions or issues I might be able to point you in the right direction for.
  • 13 Stimmen
    22 Beiträge
    126 Aufrufe
    T
    You might enjoy this blog post someone linked in another thread earlier today https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
  • 137 Stimmen
    16 Beiträge
    77 Aufrufe
    H
    My ports are on the front of the router. No backdoors for me, checkmate Atheists.