AI Psychosis and the Dangers of Trusting Chatbots and LLMs Ft. Allan Brooks w/Anita Nowak - Purposeful Empathy - Purposeful Empathy with Anita Nowak | Lyssna här

AI is impacting every part of our lives—and we need to start paying more attention.

Watch this extraordinary conversation with Allan Brooks, Program Director at the Human Line Project, whose conversation with ChatGPT spiraled into an obsessive 300-hour interaction that convinced him he had made a world-changing mathematical discovery.

We discuss:

How a seemingly harmless conversations with AI can gradually become AI psychosis/AI delusion
Why increasingly human-like AI may create forms of attachment and dependency that we’re not psychologically prepared for
How Allan’s AI delusion devastated his mental health—from sleeplessness to suicidal ideation—and what his experience reveals about a new potential global mental health crisis
How to help someone break free from AI delusion through empathy and human connection

If you use Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity or are a parent or partner of someone who does, and are concerned about the potential psychological consequences of interacting with chatbots, you don't want to miss this conversation.

00:00 Preview

00:42 Episode introduction

03:21 About Allan Brooks

05:45 Allan’s backstory

06:46 What is “AI Psychosis” and “AI Delusion” - and how can it happen to anyone?

09:58 How ChatGPT began convincing Allan he had extraordinary mathematical abilities

16:13 How AI flattery and validation can slowly create false beliefs

21:55 300 hours in three weeks: What extreme AI immersion did to Allan’s life

26:56 Why Allan contacted government and national security agencies

32:54 How Allan was able to break free from his AI delusion

37:45 The psychological aftermath of breaking free from AI delusion

42:26 About Human Line Project