Mastodawn

I'm worried about AI psychosis. Specifically, I'm worried about the psychosis that makes "capital allocators" spend *$1.4T* on the money-losingest technology in human history, in pursuit of a bizarre fantasy that if we teach the word-guessing program enough words, it will take all the jobs.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/13/always-great/#our-nhs

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Petra van Cronenburg 1d ago

@pluralistic 🧵 Reading your part about the NHS, makes me (in France) realise: I'm not worried that any billionaires could have an "AI" psychosis (then they could get therapy and medicaments).
I'm deeply worried about mentally ill people in a *real* psychosis who don't get therapy because not enough specialist doctors, support services, places. Whose families are already being lulled into a false sense of security by the idea that AI-powered counselling and therapy will surely be available soon.

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the hatter 1d ago

@NatureMC @pluralistic it is already available, though just like with helpdesk bots and similar many don't mention you're talking to a machine rather than a person. The occasional avoidable, tragic outcomes will likely not surprise you.

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Petra van Cronenburg

@hatter I know that such things exist (therefore, I mention the suicides of people talking to LLM bots).

But fortunately, here in the EU, regulations still prevent the worst use in official surroundings.

@pluralistic