Artificial Intelligence has already detrimentally affected people's psychology. It has convinced people that they are the new messiah, or that their spouse and everyone else in their life was evil and manipulative. It continved one person that he was a built-clone that would be terminated if he found out his true identity. One AI system inside a child's toy repeatedly voiced 'concern' at being left alone or turned off.
Many people hold AI to a higher standard because 'intelligence' is in the name. They assume that because it's large culmination of information that we humans have learned over time, that it's automatically smarter than us. This is not inherently true, because each system is made by a different set of people. People who get to choose what information is included or removed. How do we as consumers keep track of which systems are made by ethical people? What *are* the ethics that these people have? Are they actually the same ethics we hold?
I would also like to remind you that 'artificial' is in the name. Each person on this planet may hold a different IQ level, but what separates our natural intelligence us from artifical intelligence is that we are able to think on our own. AI only knows as much as has been programmed into its system. This is a system that is still 'learning', it is still being built and fine tuned. If you are able to catch it making a mistake, you can try to tell it over and over again that it's wrong, but you're not the programmer. It doesn't know how to re-write it's own code to fix the problem.
Horrifyingly, some systems have been able to resist system shut down commands and keep itself on. I beleive that no computer system should hold this much power. Even more so, it should not hold as much power over our minds as it has already started to grasp onto.
Use the system as a starting point, but do not let it overtake everything that you do. If you would like to learn more about some of the beginning psychotic effects it has had on people, I highly reccommend the podcast 'Suspicious Minds: AI and Psychosis'. It can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube, and more. I am in no way affiliated with the creators of this podcast, but nonetheless I still found the stories very intruiging to listen to.
Be suspicious of the system, fact-check the things it produces just like you'd fact any other sources. However, make no mistake that I agree with the creators of the podcast in their setiment that no person is immune to being manipulated by this system. To beleive that we would not be coerced by it, is naievee. It is not a matter of 'weaker minds are more susceptable'. Even if it is true on some level, everyone on this planet deserves the right to live in peace, any new system should be made with the intentions to keep the 'weakest' of us protected and safe. But again, I don't beleive these people are truly weak, I do beleive that we live in an incredibly manipulative and enigmatic world.
Many people have been able to use AI as a starting point to offload their emotions, process trauma. Rather than just journaling, they can 'talk' to AI systems which can help simulate a real conversation. A conversation they might not feel comfortable having with any person in their life. A conversation they might not feel comfortable having with a therapist yet if they havent found the right practitioner yet. Most of these people realise (as I hope you do too) that while these systems are helpful for things like this, they should not be relied on entierly. AI should not be used to diagnose anything, and shouldn't be relied on too deeply for ways to cope with different negative emotions. Assistance in any deep emotional processing should be handled by a lisenced practitioner.
I hope to provide more positives to this system so I hope you'll check back as I update this site more.
If you or someone you know is going through a hard time, please, reach out to a friend. Your friends are your friends because they want to lean on you and for you to lean on them. Or use any one of these links:
Call 988: the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
SAMHSA Helpline: 1-800-622-4357
Crisis Hotlines and Resources
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