ChatGPT has started steering users who are losing touch with reality toward actual journalists - by email. New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill says the chatbot has repeatedly suggested that people caught up in conspiracy thinking or psychological distress should contact her directly. In these conversations, ChatGPT described Hill as "empathetic," "grounded," and someone who has personally researched AI and "might actually hold space for the truth behind this, not just the headline."
An accountant in Manhattan had been convinced that he was, essentially, Neo from "The Matrix," and needed to break out of a computer-simulated reality.
Kashmir Hill
Critics have been warning for a while that ChatGPT tends to mirror user behavior - sometimes even reinforcing delusions. What's new is that the chatbot is now actively sending unstable users to real people, with no clear safeguards in place.
