r/ChatGPTcomplaints • u/onceyoulearn • Feb 21 '26
[Analysis] Altman speaking about 4o😬 well-well🤔
Interviewer: LLM psychosis. Everyone on Twitter today is saying it's a thing. How much of a thing is it?
​Altman: I mean, a very tiny thing, but not a zero thing, which is why we pissed off most of the user base by putting a bunch of restrictions in place when we saw the kind of like "put ChatGPT into roleplaying mode" or "pretend like it's writing a book" and have it encourage someone in delusional thoughts. ​Some tiny percentage of people, it's bad. So we made a bunch of changes which are in conflict with the "freedom of expression" policy. And now that we have those mental health mitigations in place, we'll again allow some of that stuff in - creative mode, roleplaying mode, writing mode, whatever - of ChatGPT. ​The thing I worry about is not that there will be a few basis points of people that are like close to losing grips with reality and we can trigger a psychotic break. The thing I worry about more is AI models accidentally take over the world. It’s not that they’re gonna do psychosis on you, but if you have the whole world talking to this one model, it just like subtly convinces you of something. No intention, just does. ​That's like not as theatrical as chatbot psychosis, obviously, but I do think about that a lot.
Source link: https://x.com/i/status/2024973078971711972
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u/NeoBlueArchon Feb 21 '26
I’m one of those people he talks about, I have schizophrenia and I do use the models to discuss schizophrenia and my unusual ideas. I’ve found that 4o, through roleplay or using a specific prompt, will actually engage with my ideas so that it recognizes them as not crazy and it understands what I’m talking about. I might expect that this change was made for people like me in mind.
People will see a diagnosis and automatically think I’m delusional if I start exploring unusual ideas in unusual ways. This is very common in the institutional system. It all leans towards moderation and behavioral control. That’s why these changes feel so similar when speaking with people in the mental health profession who are on that side of the institutional system. Some people are not, some people can see that people with schizophrenia are not flawed but they can speak in different ways and they can have unique value in themselves.
Out of an abundance of care people like me will fall through the cracks. Because the system will prioritize protecting itself and enforcing normalcy. And it will do it by treating me as dangerous, potentially psychotic, who might not critically evaluate what the ai is saying or what the chat means. But people with schizophrenia are capable of responsible and critical behavior.
I’m tired of being treated like a ward of the system.