Most Large Language Models (LLMs) can be simply understood as 'yes, and' machines—an example of machine learning that is only ever attempting to predict the word most likely to come next, rather than possessing anything like factual knowledge or an understanding of context. It's perhaps no surprise then that a recent study suggests some frontier AI chatbots are especially bad for validating the delusional beliefs of their users.
However, the lead author of the not-yet-peer-reviewed paper in question, Luke Nicholls, argues it does not need to be this way. A doctoral student of psychology at City University of New York (CUNY), Nicholls told Futurism, "Delusional reinforcement by [large language models] is a preventable alignment failure, not an inherent property of the technology."
The study of 'AI psychosis' is nascent within the field of psychology. What research there is analyses relatively small data sets, so Nicholls' study instead seeks to better understand the role of conversation history. Nicholls arg...
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