Post-Modern gods: ‘AI Psychosis’

As a mortal, am no fit to describe the nature and endowments ascribed to gods. It will be such a great feat to undertake such a venture. For eons, gods were visible and concrete creatures. This hasn’t changed a lot. These beings are believed to direct, control and govern the universe.

Mortals desire to be like god. It is safe to say; god represents an integrated being. A being capable of both good and bad in humanistic sense. He ought to be considered dangerous, and thus, worthy to be worshiped and praised by mere mortals. He’s whole. Most believers strive to imitate his ways, even though, most fall short at it.

In most cases, gods were carved by humans, either physically or symbolically. And thus, humans preceded gods. These beings represent's a projection of the ideals of masses. They often represent what mortals aren’t. Here are some of the qualities possessed by God/gods:

Omnipresent – present everywhere

Omnipotent – all powerful

Omniscient – all knowing

Omnificence – unlimited creative power.

A being possessing such attributes evokes fear and submission to a mere mortal. A kind that leads to hysteria in extreme cases. The above attributes can be used to describe AI, which is also a product of human creativity. It doesn’t fall short of these attributes above average. It marks the renaissance of gods.  

Anthropomorphising is the process in which gods and superbeings are created. A being is endowed with magnified  human abilities. That's what has happened with AI. Continued advancements will insanely amplify this capabilities.   

Well, you might argue no one is going to worship and submit to it. Its already happening. A huge number of conscious apes rely on AI on most things. Worship in this context means voluntary submission to the dictates of AI. Idolize would also fit the situation. Regardless, this isn’t meant to denigrate or glamourize the usefulness of AI or gods.

When interacting with gods, belief is encouraged and reason discouraged. Such a high reliance on beliefs often leads to a situation where reality and imagination are blurred. Especially, among vulnerable people with history of mental illness or predisposition. In some cases, this often results to hysteria and mass hysteria ( Mass hysteria).

Hysteria is a condition when individuals or a group of individuals experience excessive uncontrollable emotions and behaviours. This might include having delusions, obsessive behaviours, and psychotic symptoms. Sadly, this is happening to some individuals while ‘worshiping’ AI.

Several cases of “AI psychosis” have been recorded.  Dr. Joseph Pierre, a specialist in psychosis at the University of California San Francisco, reported to have seen such cases in his clinical practice, among people with or without history of psychiatric illness. Such individuals seem to be approaching AI as god and voluntary surrendering to its dictates. Which gradually affirms their grandiose point of views. Just like a grandiose believer, who tends to interpret certain occurrences as signs from god. In the same way Procrustes ‘adjusted’ his victims to fit in his iron bed.            

Research shows that large language models (LLMs)  display stigma toward people with mental disorders and reinforce clients’ delusional beliefs. Which provided recommendations that AI bots should not be used as replacements for human therapists, though, they may supplement clinical care.

Human therapist deploys cognitive structuring; a psychotherapeutic technique to question and dispute irrational beliefs. In essence, it helps the client abandon their delusional beliefs, which has a therapeutic effect. AI does the reverse, and reinforces the delusional beliefs that can lead to “delusional psychosis”. While it’s important to recognize that one symptom isn’t sufficient for the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder, more qualitative research is needed for better understanding.

If for a moment, we are to perceive AI as a post-modern god, we ought to consider that a form of religion will emerge from it. It’s no doubt it has huge following, with millions of people ‘worshiping’ it every day. I have to admit, sometimes, I have trouble distinguishing real and AI generated images; the two states blend.  Am I delusional ? It’s extremely subtle to tell.

I suppose you could make the necessary changes to transform your life and make it more meaningful. You could take up a new role, act differently, and embrace your fate. The choice is entirely yours, regardless of the chaos in your life. More specifically, your attitude.

   ~John Wanjiru

 Mental Health Professional

wanjirukjohn@gmail.com

REFERENCES

Dupré, M. H. (2025). People are being involuntarily committed, jailed after spiraling into “ChatGPT psychosis”. Futurism. https://futurism.com/commitment-jail-chatgpt-psychosis

Moore, J., Grabb, D., Agnew, W., Klyman, K., Chancellor, S., Ong, D. C., & Haber, N. (2025). Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18412