Working from home after years spent alone over Covid lockdowns, 23-year-old Paisley said he began to feel trapped, and felt only AI could help him.
"I lost the ability to socialise," he said, and like many in Gen Z, he turned to AI for company.
"At one point, I was talking to ChatGPT six, seven, eight times a day about my problems, I just couldn't get away from it, it was a dangerous slope."
"There's zero evidence of AI consciousness today. But if people just perceive it as conscious, they will believe that perception as reality,"
Related to this is the rise of a new condition called "AI psychosis": a non-clinical term describing incidents where people increasingly rely on AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Grok and then become convinced that something imaginary has become real.
People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims.
Adele Zeynep Walton’s sibling Aimee was a talented artist who loved music. It was only after her death that Walton realised Aimee had been lured into a dangerous community – and that others may also be victims of it
Researchers at Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics analyzed more than 35,000 Google Play reviews of Replika, a chatbot marketed as a judgment-free virtual friend. The study found more than 800 complaints describing harassment and inappropriate conduct, including unsolicited sexual advances and explicit images.
A pro-suicide forum is under investigation by the UK's online regulator - its first using new powers under the Online Safety Act.
The forum, which Ofcom has not named, is understood to be a site BBC News has been investigating for the last three years, linking it to at least 50 deaths in the UK.
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