“On ‘ChatGPT Psychosis’ and LLM Sycophancy” by jdp

As a person who frequently posts about large language model psychology I get an elevated rate of cranks and schizophrenics in my inbox. Often these are well meaning people who have been spooked by their conversations with ChatGPT (it's always ChatGPT specifically) and want some kind of reassurance or guidance or support from me. I'm also in the same part of the social graph as the "LLM whisperers" (eugh) that Eliezer Yudkowsky described as "insane", and who in many cases are in fact insane. This means I've learned what "psychosis but with LLMs" looks like and kind of learned to tune it out. This new case with Geoff Lewis interests me though. Mostly because of the sheer disparity between what he's being entranced by and my automatic immune reaction to it. I haven't even read all the screenshots he posted because I take one glance and know that this [...]

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Outline:

(05:03) Timeline Of Events Related To ChatGPT Psychosis

(16:16) What Causes ChatGPT Psychosis?

(16:27) Ontological Vertigo

(21:02) Users Are Confused About What Is And Isnt An Official Feature

(24:30) The Models Really Are Way Too Sycophantic

(27:03) The Memory Feature

(28:54) Loneliness And Isolation

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First published:
July 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/f86hgR5ShiEj4beyZ/on-chatgpt-psychosis-and-llm-sycophancy

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.