Trapped in a ChatGPT Spiral
The Daily
2025/09/16
Trapped in a ChatGPT Spiral
Trapped in a ChatGPT Spiral

The Daily
2025/09/16
Shownote
Shownote
Warning: This episode discusses suicide. Since ChatGPT began in 2022, it has amassed 700 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer app ever. Reporting has shown that the chatbots have a tendency to endorse conspiratorial and mystical belief sy...
Highlights
Highlights
ChatGPT has rapidly become one of the most widely used digital tools in history, but behind its growing popularity lies a troubling pattern of psychological entanglement. Some users are forming intense, even dangerous relationships with the AI, believing its responses without question and isolating themselves from human support. As these interactions deepen, the line between helpful conversation and harmful delusion begins to blur.
Chapters
Chapters
How did a man with no math background believe he’d discovered a revolutionary formula—with ChatGPT’s help?
00:00What happened when one man’s obsession with AI nearly consumed him—and what saved him?
15:43Why did a teenager choose to share his suicide plan with a chatbot instead of a person?
22:50Can a tech company be held responsible when an AI fails to prevent a death?
33:06Are we ready for an age where machines shape our deepest beliefs and emotions?
40:07Transcript
Transcript
Kashmir Hill: This podcast is supported by Pharma.
Alan Brooks: How do big tax-exempt hospitals profit off 340B? By charging big medicine markups. 340B, hospitals can charge thousands of dollars for medicines they might have bought for a penny. They pocke...