Saturday Hashtag: #AIPsychosis

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As millions of people increasingly turn to AI chatbot companionship for emotional support, personal guidance, and even to augment counseling sessions, serious concerns are emerging about the psychological and societal risks. 

These concerns extend beyond individual interactions with AI; they are connected to a broader threat: extractive, profit-driven systems that are already being successfully manipulated by corporate and state actors seeking to influence the information environments on which these systems depend.

Mental Health and AI Dependency

An estimated 67.8 million US adults (26.1 percent) report having experienced a mental health issue during their lifetime, making them more vulnerable to psychological distress. Increasing numbers are turning to AI systems for mental health support despite almost zero national regulation governing this use of AI technology.

The reality is these products are not designed for the needs of vulnerable users; companies’ entire business models are based on what can be described as large-scale, unscrupulous data extraction.

While individuals with serious conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia may be particularly vulnerable to distorted thinking, psychological vulnerability is not limited to those with diagnosed mental illness. Stress caused by overlapping crises, social disruption, and the current political instability increases susceptibility to psychological manipulation. 

AI and Reality Distortion

These cases are being referred to as “AI psychosis” — a term used to describe situations where interactions with AI systems contribute to cognitive distortions. Emerging research suggests a link between prolonged chatbot use and delusional thinking. Individuals with bipolar disorder have reported that long, intense conversations with chatbots can be early warning signs of manic psychosis.

The concern is not that AI universally causes mental health crises but that highly personalized conversational systems may reinforce distorted beliefs, heightened emotional states, or existing cognitive vulnerabilities when users rely on AI validation without external perspectives.

AI Chatbot-Related Suicides

Since March 2023, more than a dozen AI-related suicides and deaths have prompted legal action, including the death of Luca Cella Walker and a near-fatal crisis involving Florida pastor Scott Winters that led to a July 2026 lawsuit.

This is especially concerning when nearly 1 in 5 adolescents now reports using AI for mental health counseling.

The Authority Problem

Unlike traditional misinformation, AI-generated answers can appear authoritative and personalized, making false information harder for even psychologically healthy users to recognize. 

And AI can provide accurate information that is dangerously inappropriate. For example, AI can give a suicidal person accurate information on the best technique to hang oneself.

Although AI psychosis highlights the risks of AI companionship, chatbot relationships and everyday AI-generated responses are part of a broader challenge: the erosion of trust, cognition, and reliable information in an increasingly AI-mediated world.

Sexualized Influence Strategy

This challenge is intensified as online information environments are increasingly shaped by increasingly extreme influence tactics designed to maximize attention and engagement.

An illustration of this emerging trend is Savanna Cannon, an OnlyFans “model” turned “political influencer,” who combines sexualized content, outrage-driven media, and ideological messaging.

Savanna’s, as one might say, “vagina-first” pro-Israel, anti-Muslim “political” posts notably achieved disproportionate visibility for a new creator, demonstrating how emotionally charged, sexualized messaging can amplify political narratives regardless of their accuracy or broader social consequences.

Industrialized Influence Operations

These extreme engagement strategies exist alongside large-scale influence operations conducted by state and nonstate actors, demonstrating how attention-driven tactics are being deployed at an industrial scale. 

The $6.78 billion in foreign-agent spending reported in the United States since 2016 underscores the acknowledged resources devoted to shaping public narratives across digital platforms.

However, documented spending captures only part of the influence ecosystem, with opaque funding networks and undisclosed operations remaining difficult to measure.

Israel alone has spent $1 billion since October 2023 on state-backed influence campaigns, including $50 million for online programs and influencers designed to shape public narratives across digital platforms. These operations can also affect AI information ecosystems, creating a feedback loop in which manipulated narratives can be amplified at scale.

Critics argue Israel’s $730 million influence budget represents a global campaign to reshape perceptions of its reported genocidal actions in Gaza. Supporters call it strategic communication.

These large-scale influence operations have been documented across multiple countries, including:

• Doppelganger (Russia) — AI-generated political posts and fake news sites targeting Europe and the US
• Bad Grammar (Russia) — AI-assisted political spam and Telegram posts targeting Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics, and the US
• Spamouflage/Dragonbridge (China) — AI-generated influence posts and target research
• IUVM (Iran) — AI-generated articles and translated political propaganda content 
• Storm-2035 (Iran) — AI-generated political content targeting US elections
• STOIC/Zero Zeno (Israel) — AI-generated articles and social media comments for influence campaigns

Epistemic Anarchy

As AI becomes a primary source of knowledge, counsel, and companionship, a fundamental question emerges: Can an under-regulated, profit-driven technology trained on increasingly manipulated information environments provide trustworthy guidance to a population experiencing long-term, widespread psychological stress? 

Hashtag Picks

Psychiatrists Hope Chat Logs Can Reveal the Secrets of AI Psychosis 

From the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences: “‘You’re not crazy,’ the chatbot reassured the young woman. ‘You’re at the edge of something.’ She was no stranger to artificial intelligence, having worked on large language models — the kinds of systems at the core of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude. Trained on vast volumes of text, these models unearth language patterns and use them to predict what words are likely to come next in sentences. AI chatbots, however, go one step further, adding a user interface. With additional training, these bots can mimic conversation.”

AI Use Surging for Mental Health Help Among Young People

From The Harvard Gazette: “The question is no longer whether young people are using AI for mental health care, but the soundness of the advice they receive, health officials say. A recent survey showed that the use of AI chatbots for mental health care among adolescents and young adults has increased 60 percent in just a year, a trend that survey organizers said is likely to continue.”

Substance-Induced Manic Psychosis in Which Delusions Were Corroborated By a Chatbot 

The authors write, “This case describes a substance-induced manic episode with psychotic features in which interaction with an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot appeared to corroborate and reinforce the patient’s delusional thought content and to contradict medical advice. Excerpts from the patient’s interactions with the AI chatbot provide novel clinical insight into this phenomenon, which to date has primarily been reported in news media.” 

Psychological Influences of Conversational AI: Research and Design Directions for Reducing Harm and Promoting Well-Being

The authors write, “As conversational AI systems become increasingly integrated into daily life, their potential effects on user well-being require ongoing attention. While consumer-facing generalist models can provide benefits, including improved access to information, learning, productivity, self-reflection, and companionship, they also introduce risks, such as emotional entanglement, unhealthy dependence, and the amplification of psychological vulnerabilities.”

AI Psychosis: A Mental Health Crisis for the 21st Century

From the Pulitzer Center: “Chatbot dependence is reportedly affecting hundreds of thousands of people every week, leading to depression, breakdown and even death. As tech lawsuits stack up, what needs to be done to make AI safe?”

Digital Illusions, Political Delusions: Israel’s Hasbara Propaganda Revisited in a Time of Genocide 

The author writes, “Debates about digital technologies absorbing old political conflicts have intensified in recent years. In an ebb and flow between optimistic promise and pessimistic anxiety, discussions regarding the transformative abilities of technology include cyber warfare; digital activism during the 2011 Arab uprisings and the Black Lives Matter movement; the impact of ‘fake news’ on elections; and more recently the domination of Artificial Intelligence. This article discusses Hasbara, a mixture of propaganda and diplomacy that operates mostly through digital media.”