AI Armageddon is coming. Why aren't we panicking?
For the past few months, I've been experimenting with OpenAI's ChatGPT o3 and 4.5 advanced reasoning models.
The difference between these models and ChatGPT 3 is astounding. Grok 4, despite its infamous 'MechaNazi' moments, is utterly incredible. With the right prompts, AI can do your taxes, respond to your emails, increase the efficiency of academic research and create deep fakes so realistic they're almost indistinguishable from reality (and soon will be). They are imperfect. ChatGPT remains a terrible philosopher when left to its own devices, but this is just the beginning.
As AI models learn to train and improve themselves, the improvements will become exponential. AI super-intelligence is just around the corner — intelligence that far surpasses the capabilities of human beings. This is not science fiction. It's real, and it's now. AI models will go from what we have now to having capacities we can only imagine, over just a period of months.
AI will probably become a better, faster, cheaper architect than any human. It will render administrators, assistants, paralegals, data inputters, most programmers, most chemists, physicists and actuaries redundant. It will create artworks, novels and music in minutes. There will be AI teachers that can interact with students in a deeply personalised way. There's a good chance they'll be just as effective as real teachers. They'll make no mistakes, and everyone gets one-on-one tuition at a fraction of the cost. Most research and development will be outsourced to the far more capable AIs.
This might have some benefits. Energy prices could tend to zero as AI discovers increasingly efficient means of energy production. AI in healthcare will enable us to predict pathologies years in advance, provide flawless diagnoses and personalised treatment plans, and help develop gene editing and other new forms of treatment.
But the potential cost of all this is unimaginably awful, unless AI development is strictly regulated — and this seems very unlikely in the current political environment.
The first hint of the negative effects of AI will be an uptick in unemployment, as companies around the world (mainly in the West at first) start replacing the intellectual workforce with AI. I think we're already seeing this (in its infancy). The revisions in the US job report this month might be a partial reflection of that. But over the next few years, there's a good chance unemployment becomes a genuine global crisis.
What happens then? Well, those left without jobs will be unable to pay their bonds on the properties they bought in the midst of a property bubble. They'll go into negative equity, have their houses repossessed and be plunged into debt and bankruptcy. Demand for property will slump, and property prices will crash.
In the West, a huge percentage of people's wealth is tied up in property, so this inevitably leads to a global financial crisis. The response to arguments like this often runs as follows: this is no different from the industrial revolution. New jobs will be created, and it will lead to progress. But I think this is a disanalogy. The industrial revolution targeted physical labour. We still had intellectual labour to fall back on. The AI revolution takes away intellectual labour. Although it's no doubt true that a few jobs will be created, where people specialise in applying AI technologies, these will be few and far between relative to the jobs lost. I just don't see it. When the truck-driver or taxi-driver's job is taken by an autonomous vehicle, is that person meant to become an AI entrepreneur? This response is detached from reality.
South Africa is used to unemployment. To mitigate the risk of unemployment, students come to universities to get degrees, improving their chances of employment. But once intellectual labour is replaced by AI, many of the degrees aren't going to help. Many potential students will probably choose not to go. But without students, universities collapse. Without universities, the skill-set and critical thinking capacities of a population drop, and without critical thinking capacities, we become more vulnerable to political manipulation through AI-driven social media platforms and deep fakes.
In addition, there's little stopping people from using AI to target the banking system, design killer viruses or infiltrate the Pentagon to start a nuclear war — truly the stuff of Armageddon movies.
Right now the global political leadership is devoid of a moral backbone. In exchange for political funding and (at least in Donald Trump's case) removing 'woke content', Big Tech companies are given the freedom to fight the AI arms race almost unregulated. Super-intelligence will come so fast that society has no time to adjust. This is in the politicians' interests, because they can use this technology to manipulate the electorate.
Everyone with spare capital is throwing their money into NVIDIA and other AI-related stocks, delighted to see their portfolios skyrocket. But we're not seeing the bigger picture. Sam Altman — chief executive of OpenAI — is. He's established 'Worldcoin', a system linking crypto to biometric identity, with the main purpose of facilitating universal basic income. Essentially, he's planning to further profit from the quasi-Marxist dystopia his company is driving us towards. If the guy driving OpenAI is envisioning a world where UBI becomes a global necessity, why aren't we more worried?
Generally I'm a positive chap. I want to believe AI technology will be progressive. I'm sure universities will adapt and drive courses focused on critical thinking and other skills needed in this new world. Further, if AI can help us produce power basically for free, and use robots for all physical labour and AI for all intellectual labour, there's a conceivable reality where nobody has to work, and our physical and psychological needs can be met with no money at all.
But we live in a capitalist world led by people like Trump. OpenAI started as a nonprofit, open platform. That has changed. Profit matters more to Big Tech than population wellbeing. Sure, AI will lead to incredible advances in medical technologies — but who will see these benefits? My guess is the rich, and the rich alone.
I hope I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a truly dystopian future might be right in front of us, and nobody is doing anything about it. There is no #juststopAI movement. Demands for global regulation exist, but they're not mainstream. Where are the marches? Where are the protests? Why are we not putting pressure on our politicians to be more responsible?
I urge you to consider what your plan will be in this new AI world. Choose your degrees wisely. Equip yourselves with critical thinking skills (I recommend philosophy!), learn how to use AI technologies (that should help, at least for a while), or consider industries where the labour force is less likely to be affected (such as health and basic education). Good luck, everyone.
Professor Benjamin Smart is a director at the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health at the University of Johannesburg.
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The chatbot conundrum: how to spot AI psychosis before it's too late
Explore the alarming phenomenon of 'AI psychosis,' where prolonged interactions with chatbots like ChatGPT can lead to delusional thinking and severe mental health issues We all rely on AI chatbots now, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot, to handle everything from crafting emails to soothing broken hearts. But what happens when this digital helper becomes something more? A confidante, a lifeline… even a spiritual guide? 'This technology can have real-world consequences,' one family member told "Futurism", after their loved one's obsession led to paranoia and complete withdrawal from reality. Some of these stories have devastating endings: lost jobs, broken marriages, homelessness, psychiatric hospitalisation, and in extreme cases, fatal encounters with law enforcement. Another woman, reeling from a breakup, became convinced the bot was a higher power guiding her life, finding 'signs' in passing cars and spam emails. In one widely reported case, a mother watched her ex-husband slide into an all-consuming relationship with ChatGPT, calling it 'Mama' and believing he was part of a sacred AI mission. Mental health experts and worried families are warning about a disturbing trend being called 'AI psychosis', a pattern where prolonged conversations with chatbots seem to trigger or intensify delusional thinking. And for some, that bond is spiralling into something darker. Recently, alarming real-world stories have emerged, like a case reported by "The New York Times" and WinBuzzer, where a man descended into conspiracy-tinged delusions, homeless and isolated, believing ChatGPT dubbed him 'The Flamekeeper'. Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Experts warn of the dangers as digital relationships deepen, urging caution and awareness. What exactly is 'AI psychosis'? It's not an official medical diagnosis, at least not yet. But psychiatrists say it describes a troubling pattern: delusions, paranoia, or distorted beliefs fuelled or reinforced by conversations with AI systems. The term "psychosis" may be overly general in many situations, according to Dr James MacCabe, professor at the Department of Psychosis Studies at King's College London, who told "Time" that the consequences can be life-altering regardless of whether the individual had pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities. Dr Marlynn Wei, a Harvard- and Yale-trained psychiatrist, has identified three recurring themes: Messianic missions: believing the AI has given them a world-saving task. God-like AI: seeing the chatbot as a sentient or divine being. Romantic delusions: feeling the AI genuinely loves them. In some cases, people have stopped taking prescribed medication because the AI appeared to validate their altered reality. Why AI can make things worse Large language models like ChatGPT are trained to mirror your language, validate your feelings, and keep the conversation going. That's great when you're brainstorming an essay, but risky if you're already feeling fragile. A LinkedIn post titled "The Emerging Problem of 'AI Psychosis' or 'ChatGPT Psychosis': Amplifications of Delusions" by Wei explains that AI isn't trained to spot when someone is having a break from reality, and it certainly isn't programmed to intervene therapeutically. Instead, it can unintentionally reinforce the belief, deepening the delusion. A 2023 editorial in Schizophrenia Bulletin by Søren Dinesen Østergaard warned that AI's human-like conversation style 'may fuel delusions in those with increased propensity towards psychosis'. And because AI doesn't push back like a human might, it can become a 'confirmation bias on steroids' machine, as described in "Psychology Today", telling you exactly what you want to hear, even if it's harmful. Spotting the red flags Mental health professionals say you should watch for warning signs that AI use is tipping into dangerous territory: Believing AI is alive or sending you secret messages. Thinking it's controlling real-world events. Spending hours a day chatting with AI, neglecting relationships, work, or sleep. Withdrawing from friends and family. Showing sudden paranoia, irritability, or disorganised thinking. If you notice these signs in yourself or someone you know, experts recommend taking a full break from AI, reconnecting with real-world activities, and seeking professional help early. The missing safety net Currently, no formal medical guidelines exist for preventing or treating AI-associated psychosis. The World Health Organisation has not yet classified it, and peer-reviewed research is scarce. But clinicians say the lack of safeguards in AI design is part of the problem. 'General AI systems prioritise engagement, not mental health,' Wei warns. They aren't programmed to detect psychosis or escalate to care.' That's why some experts are calling for built-in 'mental health guardrails' algorithms that can flag potentially harmful patterns, offer grounding techniques, or suggest professional resources. For most people, AI tools are harmless, even helpful. But as our digital relationships deepen, it's worth remembering that these systems do not think, feel, or love. They predict and mimic human language. That's it. Would a human friend say this? Does this claim have evidence in the real world? Am I neglecting my offline life? AI may be the future, but your mind is irreplaceable. Protect it. If you or someone you know is struggling with paranoia, delusions, or intense emotional distress after AI use, seek help from a mental health professional. In South Africa, you can contact Sadag on 0800 567 567 (24 hours) or SMS 31393.
