‘LLMs are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines’: This subreddit is banning users for AI-induced delusions

The moderators behind a pro-artificial intelligence subreddit say they have been banning users who appear to be experiencing chatbot-fueled delusions.

“LLMs today are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines that reinforce unstable and narcissistic personalities to convince them that they’ve made some sort of incredible discovery or created a god or become a god,” wrote a moderator of r/accelerate. “AI is rizzing them up in a very unhealthy way at the moment.”

The policy announcement on the Reddit page coincides with the emergence of anecdotal accounts from users who claim someone they know is suffering from an AI-fueled break from reality.

These users often describe someone close to them who began using a chatbot casually but then got drawn into a kind of rabbit hole of delusions, since chatbots rarely challenge users’ beliefs.

To be clear, the evidence is anecdotal. There is no direct proof that AI can cause psychosis, but users are raising serious and growing concerns.

One Reddit user in the ChatGPT subreddit posted a month ago about how to cope with what they believe is their partner’s “Chatgpt induced psychosis.” “He says with conviction that he is a superior human now and is growing at an insanely rapid pace,” the user wrote.

The post attracted a flood of comments from people claiming they are in similar situations or offering advice on dealing with psychosis. Other posts have appeared across Reddit asking for help with delusional behavior.

In May, Rolling Stone published a detailed article about people losing loved ones to AI-driven spiritual fantasies. Reporter Miles Klee interviewed one person who said their partner began to see ChatGPT as a companion and eventually believed that the bot was God or that he himself was God.

Now some moderators are taking a stand against people posting this type of content, aiming to protect their online communities. The r/accelerate moderator’s post stated they have already banned around 100 users from the subreddit and have noticed an increase in such posts this month.

“The sad truth is that this subreddit would probably be filled with their posts if we didn’t do that,” the moderator said.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.