After using ChatGPT, man swaps his salt for sodium bromide—and suffers psychosis (arstechnica.com)
from sculd@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org on 11 Aug 2025 14:18
https://beehaw.org/post/21570609

Honestly not sure what to say except INSANITY!!!

Three months later, the man showed up at his local emergency room. His neighbor, he said, was trying to poison him. Though extremely thirsty, the man was paranoid about accepting the water that the hospital offered him, telling doctors that he had begun distilling his own water at home and that he was on an extremely restrictive vegetarian diet. He did not mention the sodium bromide or the ChatGPT discussions.

#technology

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theangriestbird@beehaw.org on 11 Aug 2025 19:25 next collapse

Nah bro the AI is totally trustworthy. Just trust me bro all the rich people are saying its reliable the US president is even saying it’s the greatest thing ever bro what you don’t trust the government now? You said ‘trust the experts’ bro i’m trusting the experts and they say eat the bromide trust me bromide!

sculd@beehaw.org on 12 Aug 2025 04:15 next collapse

I hope they all started listening to AI for their life choice. Will be interesting

megopie@beehaw.org on 12 Aug 2025 07:50 collapse

“No, you see, we promise all this tech is real and awesome. It’s totally another hyper growth market that will drive economic development! Ignore the fact we’re slipping in to recession despite this being a “booming” market.”

jarfil@beehaw.org on 12 Aug 2025 01:46 collapse

Good news: advances in medicine have reduced “physical” natural selection so much, that “intellectual” natural selection is overtaking it.

Now, if only all countries could say the same.

sculd@beehaw.org on 12 Aug 2025 04:15 collapse

I used to think education help people make right choice. I am rethinking that position now.

jarfil@beehaw.org on 15 Aug 2025 12:34 collapse

Education is supposed to teach “how to learn to learn”.

Left to his own devices, then, without knowing quite what to ask or how to interpret the responses, the man in this case study “did his own research”

The whole thing with “do your own research”, is kind of funny:

  • some use it to avoid explaining their points
  • others use it to come up with a lot of nonsense
  • while the proper way to begin any “research”, is to… ask an expert.

Nobody has ended up in a psych hold, just by reading a bunch of Wikipedia articles, asking ChatGPT… then consulting a doctor.