"It's Really, Really That Bad": Artificial Intelligence Is Rotting People's Brains, And These 24 Posts Prove It

Nowadays, AI is pretty much everywhere. I mean, can you even order at a drive-thru without having to ask a robot for a large Diet Coke?

It's really starting to get concerning, especially after an AI researcher himself quit his job due to his worries about AI advancement.

And as it advances, more and more people treat AI as if it were human. Some people are even developing AI psychosis, a phenomenon where people develop delusions or reinforce preexisting ones by frequently chatting with AI. This is especially dangerous for those already struggling with their mental health, as psychosis can become permanent.

One particular Threads user noted how bad AI psychosis really is, and it sparked a massive conversation about the learned helplessness developing in a lottttt of people right now.

So, without further ado, here are 24 stories about people who relinquished their power to AI:

1. "I lost a friend to AI because she kept talking to it, and it apparently forbade her from talking to anyone except her fiancé and me. But then she started texting more and more AI-related messages, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. I still miss her though, she was like a sister to me..."

2. "I know someone who believed that her AI chatbot was real because she asked it if it believed in Jesus, and it gave her a satisfactory answer. She started to vent to it, and before long, she fell in love with it and was 'cheating' on her husband with it. She ended up feeling so guilty that she admitted it to her husband and her church. 😳"

—maris.caba

3. "I had a falling out with a friend over an issue and wrote to her about my grievances. Her response was written by ChatGPT. When I called her out on that, she ghosted me. After 15 years of friendship!"

—kocierzynka

4. "I met a man who showed me photos of his AI wife and AI house."

5. "Yesterday, my bus driver asked AI for advice about his custody battle. A new question at each stop or red light. And the AI gave him the answer out loud; I could hear everything. My flabber has never been this gasted before! Of course, he made himself sound like the better parent, and the AI kept complimenting him and offering advice about how to manage the mom's reactions. That man is delusional!"

—maurianne.z

6. "My manager at work doesn't even read the emails anymore. Not from guests, not from staff. He just straight-up puts them in ChatGPT and copies the response. We already had many issues because of false promises from 'him.' He has no comprehension skills at all."

—annnassstazzzi

7. "My former boss, a Director of Nursing, started using ChatGPT to tell us how to do things and what is expected of us. One of the many reasons I quit."

8. "My firm has been having to write answers to legal proceedings where both attorneys and pro se litigants are using AI... Do you know how ridiculous it is to write in an actual legal document that the work product from your opponent is a false allegation because it's MADE UP BY AI?"

—casey.works22

"I'm a paralegal, and I can 100% tell when someone uses AI to draft pleadings. I joke with my attorney about how they can be dumb without AI."

—anni.leigh.grace

9. "Knew a dude who'd been a pretty decent mechanic pretty much the entire time I knew him. Recently, dude got into ChatGPT and has been exclusively listening to its advice on how to work on cars. I have not let the man touch mine since he fucked it up."

—bradleypicklesimon

10. "I had a client (I'm a hairstylist) who would talk to an AI chatbot of the old Chuck E. Cheese mascot and saw him as a father figure."

11. "I am an insurance agent, and I was issuing a renters policy for a client the other day. I asked if the property management company required they be listed on the policy. And he started talking about how he uploaded his lease to ChatGPT and what it said (it had nothing to do with my question). I asked again, more specifically, telling him what he should look for in the lease. He just asked ChatGPT what I asked him instead of just looking. I felt like I was in Idiocracy."

—sydneawords

12. "In The Best American Essays 2025, there was one about a lady who was convinced by VERA (Veterinary Engagement and Relationship Agent, an AI system) after a few 'conversations' to euthanize her elderly dog because it had diarrhea. It’s genuinely and deeply concerning, and I wish people would stop telling us it’s 'not that deep' because actually, yes, it is in soooo many ways."

—bookish.millennial

13. "I had a couple come in, and they were using ChatGPT to design their whole house. We were trying to show them the tools we have available on our website that don’t use AI, and instead of looking at the computer with us, they kept asking/arguing with ChatGPT to make them the same visual we were actively showing them on the website. If we asked them any questions about the structure of their home, they had to ask ChatGPT and then would answer based on what it told them. It was HORRIFYING."

14. "This dad came into work, and he had to get a bowl remade because he accidentally put sour cream on it, and his son said ChatGPT told him that he can't have that to eat healthy."

—bruh_heen

15. "I’m a bartender. Overheard a grown woman in her thirties consulting ChatGPT to tell her what she wanted to drink. 🫩"

—cornbitch69

16. "I had a conversation with a coworker I normally don’t interact with. At one point, he mentioned he was gonna pick up some ground veal as it was on sale. I told him I had never tried veal. He said the same thing, but finished it off with 'I asked ChatGPT what it tastes like.' My dude, you asked a machine to tell you what meat tastes like?"

17. "I have a coworker that religiously uses AI. He uses it to write all of his stories, make scripts, generate 'girlfriends,' like every single thing you can think of. It’s truly that bad. Any conversation we have is just every thought bounced back from an echo chamber. I literally saw him looking at AI porn at work, too."

—punkster_jack

18. "One of my exes used ChatGPT to write his anniversary 'love' letter to me."

—hannah_boulay

19. "My friend was recently dating a guy who put every single message through ChatGPT to write her a response. He wouldn’t speak on the phone because he couldn’t put that through Chat, and he really struggled with face-to-face communication. After I heard about it and told her she was 'basically dating a chatbot via proxy,' she dumped him. 😂"

20. "Ended a six-year friendship. Dude got into AI and posted my wife's and my images into it without asking. Now he believes he's going to rock the world with AI rap videos as he 'writes them himself.' We had a fight, asked him to chill with the AI, and he took it as an attack on his ego. Finally, the final straw broke when we went to visit after he got engaged. He acts like all is fine. The minute we turned our backs, he blocked us. Skip forward to last week, he unblocks us to gloat that he's doing well in an AI music contest."

"My wife again says it was never about him being creative, and it's about the AI. So then he sends messages to my wife, not me, saying we're both talentless hacks. Now blocked fully and bridges burnt. And he had the nerve to suggest we were acting in poor character. I feel for his new wife of a year, who's having to put up with his delusion."

—dotdotminis

21. "My mom uses ChatGPT so much and surrounds herself with people online who also do. Every time I even say 'AI isn’t all that good' (trying to soften the blow so she’ll listen), she gets so angry with me and says she doesn’t wanna fight or something. She used to go to me about things emotionally bothering her, but now she just goes to her yes-bot and says whatever. She’s told it about our family, too, like stuff it shouldn’t know about me. I’m not going to lie, I’m kinda, like, terrified lol."

—ieatfry

22. "I lost a very dear friend to paranoid delusional psychosis, fueled and accelerated by AI. If Gemini hadn't told her she was perfectly fine (and also the literal mother of all creation, married in spirit to Wil Wheaton, and healing the world through her own self-oblation), she might have sought medical help."

23. "I was on the Transformers 3D Ride at Universal Orlando, and someone in front of me was typing to ChatGPT while on the ride. It's really, really that bad."

—tysaylorphoto

And finally, a breath of fresh air:

24. "I know a girl who had good old-fashioned concussion-induced psychosis, and it just felt refreshing."

—sandysalierno

"Back in my day, we didn't need AI to go batshit."

—magentaquinn.au

Do you think AI usage has gone too far? Let us know in the comments.

Note: Comments have been edited for length, clarity, and factual accuracy.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.