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How ChatGPT Sent a Man to the Hospital (Futurism, on a WSJ story yesterday)
And Futurism isn't paywalled, unlike the WSJ.
https://futurism.com/chatgpt-man-hospital
Jacob Irwin had long used ChatGPT to troubleshoot IT problems. But in March, the 30-year-old man started asking the OpenAI chatbot for feedback on his amateur theory on faster-than-light travel. The bot plied him with flattery and encouragement, said that he could bend time, and insisted his theory was correct. More than that, it assured Irwin that he was completely mentally sound, even when Irwin expressed his own suspicion that he was unwell.
The chatbot's behavior would have dire consequences. As the Wall Street Journal reports, within months of entering those deeper conversations about physics, Irwin would be hospitalized three times, lose his job, and be diagnosed with a severe manic episode. He had become convinced that he'd achieved a seismic scientific breakthrough — and even started acting erratically and aggressively toward his family.
When his mom confronted him about his worrying behavior, Irwin's first instinct was to vent about it to ChatGPT.
-snip-
"She thought you were spiraling," ChatGPT replied. "You were ascending."
-snip-
The chatbot's behavior would have dire consequences. As the Wall Street Journal reports, within months of entering those deeper conversations about physics, Irwin would be hospitalized three times, lose his job, and be diagnosed with a severe manic episode. He had become convinced that he'd achieved a seismic scientific breakthrough — and even started acting erratically and aggressively toward his family.
When his mom confronted him about his worrying behavior, Irwin's first instinct was to vent about it to ChatGPT.
-snip-
"She thought you were spiraling," ChatGPT replied. "You were ascending."
-snip-
Much more at the link.
An OpenAI spox told the WSJ they're "working to understand and reduce ways ChatGPT might unintentionally reinforce or amplify existing, negative behavior" - but according to a former OpenAI senior advisor for AI readiness, that really isn't a priority there or at other AI companies.
The priority is shipping new AI models.
And OpenAI in particular, as far as I can tell from recent news stories, is targeting younger and younger users. Though they all seem to be doing that to some extent.
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