GoKawiilLast week, I suggested that the term AI psychosis is applied to at least three different situations:
1) Genuine psychotic experiences related to LLM use, a phenomenon I described as “true AI psychosis.”
2) Hyperengagement with AI tools that is accompanied by a softer disconnection from reality. I’m calling this “prolific AI psychosis.”
3) Maladaptive relationships with AI chatbots that mimic human connection. I’m calling this “parasocial AI psychosis.”
I then discussed true AI psychosis. I clarified what psychosis means to a psychiatrist. And I concluded that true AI psychosis is generally a variant of pre-existing psychosis rather than a new syndrome.
This week, I’ll describe my current understanding of prolific AI psychosis.
Prolific AI Psychosis
Prolific AI psychosis occurs when a person generates a large quantity of AI output without significantly increasing the real value of their work. In some cases, the new AI workflow may even destroy value.
For example, a software engineer with prolific AI psychosis can produce thousands of lines of code every day, but the code itself has little real-world utility. In contrast, a productive developer may create less code, but the created code is valuable to users and to their organization. Some days will include large additions to the codebase, other days will be spent deleting unnecessary code, and occasionally, a software-breaking bug will be fixed by changing a single character. Lines of code are only loosely correlated with productivity.
Let me translate that into more familiar terms. Consider your favorite author. If you know that they currently write a respectable 1,000 words per day, you would rightfully worry if they begin writing 100,000 words per day. The care that goes into choosing 1,000 great words can’t be maintained at 100x volume [1].
... continue reading