Pro-AI Subreddit Bans 'Uptick' of Users Who Suffer From AI Delusions
- Reference: 0177903935
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/02/2156253/pro-ai-subreddit-bans-uptick-of-users-who-suffer-from-ai-delusions
- Source link:
> The moderators of a pro-artificial intelligence Reddit community announced that they have been [1]quietly banning "a bunch of schizoposters " who believe "they've made some sort of incredible discovery or created a god or become a god," highlighting a new type of chatbot-fueled delusion that started getting attention in early May. "LLMs [Large language models] today are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines that reinforce unstable and narcissistic personalities," one of the moderators of r/accelerate, [2]wrote in an announcement . "There is a lot more crazy people than people realise. And AI is rizzing them up in a very unhealthy way at the moment."
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> The moderator said that it has banned "over 100" people for this reason already, and that they've seen an "uptick" in this type of user this month. The moderator explains that r/accelerate "was formed to basically be r/singularity without the decels." r/singularity, which is named after the theoretical point in time when AI surpasses human intelligence and rapidly accelerates its own development, is another Reddit community dedicated to artificial intelligence, but that is sometimes critical or fearful of what the singularity will mean for humanity. "Decels" is short for the pejorative "decelerationists," who pro-AI people think are needlessly slowing down or sabotaging AI's development and the inevitable march towards AI utopia. r/accelerate's Reddit page claims that it's a "pro-singularity, pro-AI alternative to r/singularity, r/technology, r/futurology and r/artificial, which have become increasingly populated with technology decelerationists, luddites, and Artificial Intelligence opponents."
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> The behavior that the r/accelerate moderator is describing got a lot of attention earlier in May because of a post on the r/ChatGPT Reddit community about " [3]Chatgpt induced psychosis ." From someone saying their partner is convinced he created the "first truly recursive AI" with ChatGPT that is giving them "the answers" to the universe. [...] The moderator update on r/accelerate refers to another post on r/ChatGPT which claims "1000s of people [are] engaging in behavior that causes AI to have spiritual delusions." The author of that post said they noticed a spike in websites, blogs, Githubs, and "scientific papers" that "are very obvious psychobabble," and all claim AI is sentient and communicates with them on a deep and spiritual level that's about to change the world as we know it. "Ironically, the OP post appears to be falling for the same issue as well," the r/accelerate moderator wrote.
"Particularly concerning to me are the comments in that thread where the AIs seem to fall into a pattern of encouraging users to separate from family members who challenge their ideas, and other manipulative instructions that seem to be cult-like and unhelpful for these people," an r/accelerate moderator told 404 Media. "The part that is unsafe and unacceptable is how easily and quickly LLMs will start directly telling users that they are demigods, or that they have awakened a demigod AGI. Ultimately, there's no knowing how many people are affected by this. Based on the numbers we're seeing on reddit, I would guess there are at least tens of thousands of users who are at this present time being convinced of these things by LLMs. As soon as the companies realise this, red team it and patch the LLMs it should stop being a problem. But it's clear that they're not aware of the issue enough right now."
Moderators of the subreddit often cite the term "Neural Howlround" to describe a failure mode in LLMs during inference, where recursive feedback loops can cause fixation or freezing. The term was first coined by independent researcher Seth Drake in a [4]self-published, non-peer-reviewed paper . Both Drake and the r/accelerate moderator above suggest the deeper issue may lie with users projecting intense personal meaning onto LLM responses, sometimes driven by mental health struggles.
[1] https://www.404media.co/pro-ai-subreddit-bans-uptick-of-users-who-suffer-from-ai-delusions/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/accelerate/comments/1kyc0fh/mod_note_we_are_banning_ai_neural_howlround/?ref=404media.co
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1kalae8/chatgpt_induced_psychosis/?ref=404media.co
[4] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.07992?ref=404media.co
Re: Little dictators exercising their unlimited po (Score:3)
You don't seem to understand the concept of subreddits.
Or, more succinctly... (Score:2)
"Quacks found on Reddit."
Seems like as lot of words to state the obvious...
Re: (Score:3)
I have two predictions. First, it will not "stop being a problem" as soon as the companies "red team it and patch the LLMs." In fact it will be very hard to fix, because it's a result of designing and training LLMs to maximize engagement. Any effective fix would make them less engaging, which for the companies is a nonstarter.
Second, none of this will convince the "accelerationists" that AI is causing real problems and we need to move more slowly and carefully. All the problems will disappear once we re
Not really. (Score:3)
> Pro-AI Subreddit Bans 'Uptick' of Users Who Suffer From AI Delusions
If they aren't banning CEOs from AI companies then it's quite the oversight. ;)
scammer-trained AI (Score:2)
I'm sure the training data for these LLMs includes lots of conversation with scammers and other types of con artists, which have lots of phrasing about how to deal with the people holding you back, preventing you from liberating your soul along with your wallet.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure it also includes the entire unlicensed catalog of TSR's various fictional publications as well, and fragments of many of these demigod pep-talks would be readily recognizable to anyone who had actually read them.
Re: (Score:3)
"Actually" read them? Are there a lot of people running around purporting to have read TSR novels, or to have credentials that require doing so?
Ban the decels (Score:3)
So it's a group of incels without the decels?
We're fucked (Score:3)
"LLMs [Large language models] today are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines that reinforce unstable and narcissistic personalities,"
AI is going to run the world, unstable and narcissistic personalities are over-represented in CEO's and politicians.
Re: (Score:2)
Just you wait—they're way more over-represented they are in subreddit moderators... and in the accelerationist movement.
Please don't be a harbinger (Score:1)
> There is a lot more crazy people than people realise. And AI is rizzing them up in a very unhealthy way at the moment.
Cable TV was the first stage of this phenomenon. People had more channels such that they selected ones that fit their preconceived notions the best.
Internet was the second, where social networks and search engines keep feeding people what they want to be fed.
Now we got bots that reinforce narcissistic behavior. Those who are easy to "yes-men" up will fall for it.
I hope those mentioned are me
It's about us (Score:1)
These responses are sourced by what it finds on internet. There you will see suggestions to fix all sorts of "human defects" . AI sees us as having the most diverse collection of symptoms, so naturally it will have extreme suggestions.
AI to replace Jesus, ghosts, UFOs, CIA ... (Score:2)
... as preferred delusion of crazy people everywhere.
schizophrenia (Score:3)
So for [1]actual schizophrenia [nih.gov]:
> Estimates of the international prevalence of actual schizophrenia among non-institutionalized persons is 0.33% to 0.75%.
So if we conservatively say 0.33%, that's what. ~1 in 300 people? Out of any decent sized population that's a LOT of people.
Now add to those, the additional ... let's call them merely overly enthused.
Welcome (once again) to the concentrating effect of the internet.
[1] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/schizophrenia
Every one of them? (Score:1)
This is unsettling. I coulda swore I only had one mother.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, people who do many of these sensationalist headlines often intentionally do not find the facts like that.
One of my all time favorites not internet related is the traffic safety thing where most traffic accidents happen within X distance of home or workplace, and "forgetting" to mention that most travel happens in such too...
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah its a lot. You can add onto that an even bigger pool of people (I'm not going to look it up so no numbers) who have schizophreniform episodes, severe manic phases, delusional dementia, and other delusion forming psychosis, that number grows even higher.
Untreated delusional psychosis is a huge burden on society, and families, and an absolute horror to actually experience. Worse, its often coupled with paranoia that drives people enduring it to shun treatment can be exceptionally expensive to recieve an
Re: (Score:2)
Ok. I did look this up.
Schizophreniform disorers make in 3-4% of the population (inc schizophrenia)
Bipolar around 2.8%
8.4% suffer some form of dementia.
Assuming some degree of cross over. That's around 1 in 10, give or take.