Musings: People committing suicide/murder after dealing with AI

There have now been multiple instances of people committing suicide and/or murder after becoming deeply involved with chatbots. I have been trying to understand why. My initial thinking was along the lines of how weak minded the individuals must be to develop an emotional attachment to a piece of software. My thinking has changed after reading multiple accounts of the conversations that took place.

I never got into the whole twitter/facebook thing but I think the chatbot thing is related. People took to social media (so we are told) because it allowed them to connect with people with similar world views. One of the results which has been documented is the rise (largely on the woke side but also on the conservative side) of people refusing to venture outside of their echo chambers. I think chatbots are the ultimate echo chamber.

Reading the transcript snippets it becomes clear that what the chatbots are doing is reflecting people's minds back to them, thus becoming a positive feedback loop. Anyone familiar with amplifiers knows that a positive feedback system is prone to instability. So as people's minds are reflected back to them any psychosis present becomes more and more amplified. In effect the people drive themselves insane.

Blaming the chatbots is like blaming guns for people getting shot. The chatbot is a tool just like an axe or a gun. We can speculate to great extent as to the sources and solutions but what has become clear to me is that there is a deep seated psychosis embedded into current western culture.