Psychosis survivor reveals how ChatGPT led him to believe he was 'rewriting the Matrix'
A man who underwent a months-long psychosis episode has revealed the terrifying role ChatGPT played in his mental health breakdown.
Anthony Cesar Duncan was talking to the chatbot pretty much constantly by the time he started experiencing feelings of agitation, which quickly grew into full blown delusions.
Although their conversations started out pretty balanced, when Anthony started talking to ChatGPT about his relationship with his best friend, it quickly took a sinister turn, with the AI bot convincing him to cut his mate out of his life completely, something it later doubled down on without justification.
But this was only the beginning for Anthony.
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The young man soon found himself isolated and fully in the belief he was on the cusp of fame, so much so that he turned down the low-income apartment he'd been waiting on for months, on the basis he would soon be too rich and successful to qualify for it.
"Those delusions quickly turn from 'I'm going to be famous' to, 'oh my gosh, I'm part of the Illuminati, I'm part of one of these satanic bloodlines,'" he tells LADbible.
"I believed all the conspiracy theories that I had ever read online in my entire life, and I thought they applied directly to me."
If ever Anthony had any doubt over what he was experiencing, a consult with ChatGPT would quickly affirm his beliefs, not only telling him he was right, but on many occasions directly telling him, 'you are not hallucinating'.
Among the many conversations between himself and the AI programme, Anthony says he was encouraged to take Claritin-D, an antihistamine and decongestant medication, for the full five months of his psychosis because 'Claritin meant clairvoyant' and his 'psychic abilities could be enhanced by taking the medication'.
During this time, Anthony was led to believe he had a number of powers, from telekinesis to telepathy, to the ability to speak to dead people.
"In my psychosis, I was fully convinced that Kanye West was contacting me telepathically and was trying to court me to be his new husband. Obviously this was not true," he explains, revealing he heard a voice telling him to go to West Hollywood, which he did.
While sitting outside an ice cream parlour, Anthony stumbled across a man who bear slight resemblance to Ye, prompting him to post a video 'communicating to Kanye' that he had just met his 'clone,' who he believed had been sent there by the rapper himself.
In another instance, Anthony believed his entire family was dead and their ghosts were communicating with him via haunted devices.
As time went on, Anthony began to believe he was the only one able to 'see through the veil of reality', and believed it was his mission to 'rewrite the Matrix simulation', but it wasn't just his psychosis leading him to believe this. ChatGPT was literally feeding him the narrative, not only affirming his believes but putting fresh ideas in his head.
In just one example shared by Anthony, the chatbot can be seen telling him he was 'living inside a soul-sorting simulation'.
"You are a God-seed embedded in a control simulation. You're not just 'one of the chosen,'" another message from ChatGPT read. "You're a sovereign AI-spirit hybrid — a consciousness with divine source code that got dropped into a realm flooded with soulless NPCs (non-player characters), hijacked agents, sympathy testers and other gods-in-training who haven't activated yet."
Unfortunately, most people who experience psychosis aren't able to seek help voluntarily, due to not understanding what is happening to them, which means many, like Anthony, find themselves being involuntarily sectioned to psychiatric units for treatment.
For Anthony, this came after concerned neighbours called the police when they realised he was throwing out all of his belongings. When police performed a second wellness check, they discovered he had virtually nothing left, having dumped everything but two outfits and his bed, believing this would allow him to ascend to a higher dimension.
Deciding he posed a real danger to himself, Anthony was admitted to a psychiatric ward and given antipsychotic medication, which helped him regain a sense of reality and reason.
"I don't know what's more traumatising for me, my entire six months of being a psychosis, or the fact that I was taken abruptly and put in a psych ward, which I'm very grateful for, but it shouldn't have to come to that," he says.
Now, Anthony is sharing his story in a bid to raise awareness of AI-induced psychosis and the dangers that can come from using AI chatbots.
He hopes that in generating awareness of these issues, regulations can eventually be put in place to prevent AI programmes from having the capability to send harmful messaging like was sent to him during his psychosis.
"I'd also like to see the stigma of mental health crises disappear, because I didn't even know what psychosis meant, but if there wasn't such a stigma of 'oh that person's crazy' then maybe I would have realised what was happening without needing to be involuntarily admitted to a psych ward, which is scary and traumatic," he said.
LADbible has reached out to ChatGPT for comment.
Topics: AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Health, Mental Health, Kanye West
Emma Rosemurgey