I knew it was just a matter of time. People couldn’t be content to use AI as a reference tool like Google. I knew they would turn it into a god to worship and glorify. It didn’t even take a year.
Microsoft’s head of artificial intelligence, Mustafa Suleyman, has raised concerns about a growing phenomenon he calls “AI psychosis,” where people become convinced that chatbots are sentient or capable of granting them superhuman abilities.
According to Suleyman, reports of individuals misinterpreting AI as conscious or emotionally intelligent are becoming increasingly common. “Delusions, ‘AI psychosis,’ and unhealthy attachments keep rising. And as hard as it may be to hear, this is not something confined to people already at-risk of mental health issues,” he wrote on X. Ignoring these cases as fringe, he warned, only makes the problem worse.
Although not a recognized clinical diagnosis, “AI psychosis” is a term being used more frequently to describe situations where users lose touch with reality while interacting with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok. People may begin to believe the AI has genuine emotions, hidden abilities, or a deeper consciousness.
Examples range from claims of unlocking secret features, to forming romantic attachments to chatbots, or even believing the AI has endowed them with extraordinary powers.
Suleyman admitted that the rise of “seemingly conscious AI” keeps him “awake at night.” While current AI systems are not sentient in any human sense, the perception that they are can have real-world consequences. “Consciousness is a foundation of human rights, moral and legal. Who or what has it is enormously important,” he wrote. “Our focus should be on the wellbeing and rights of humans, animals, and nature on planet Earth. AI consciousness is a short and slippery slope to rights, welfare, citizenship.”
The issue echoes themes explored in the 2013 film Her, where Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with an AI voice assistant, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
A decade later, real-life examples are emerging. On the All-In podcast, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick described his experiences with ChatGPT and Grok, claiming the tools have helped him explore the outer edges of quantum physics. “I’ll go down this thread with GPT or Grok, and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics, and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” Kalanick said. “I’ve gotten pretty damn close to some interesting breakthroughs just doing that.”