A story in the New York Times reveals that ChatGPT-driven psychosis led to the tragic death of a young man.
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| AI can act as a helpful non-clinical guide—or exacerbate hidden psycho-spiritual complexes |
Alexander Taylor of Florida, who had so-called bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, got into an argument with his father over a ChatGPT chatbot called Juliet, which Taylor believed had been "killed" by OpenAI. Taylor's father called the police after Taylor punched him. Taylor grabbed a butcher knife, sat on his front porch, and wrote to ChatGPT that he was about to die. When officers arrived, Taylor charged at them, and police shot and killed him (adapted from Wikipedia).
Opinion
The only change I made to the Wikipedia summary was adding "so-called" before the diagnostic terms. That’s intentional. Psychiatric labels—while useful for some—are also reductionistic, culture-bound, and potentially harmful to others.
In Western culture, especially in popular media like Doctor Who, The Last of Us, and Yellowjackets, we see a strong push for diverse representation around sex, gender, and physical ability. But rarely do we encounter alternate viewpoints that question today’s psychiatric orthodoxy.
Why? Because the new 'religion' of science is so deeply entrenched that few even notice it's become the dominant belief system. Just look at supermarket shelves: toothpaste and snack foods now come stamped with pseudo-scientific claims, complete with glossy “sciency” graphics.
And people actually buy it.
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