People Using AI Chatbots As Tripsitter When Using Psychedelics, Sparking Concerns
Ever since AI chatbots burst onto the scene, throngs of people have turned to them as surrogates for human therapists, citing the high costs and accessibility barriers. However, this is the first instance when reports of AI being used as a trip sitter have surfaced. Trip sitter is a phrase that traditionally refers to a sober person tasked with monitoring someone who's under the influence of a psychedelic.
The report highlights a case study where a man named Peter underwent a transformative experience tripping on a heroic dose of eight grammes of psilocybin mushrooms with AI assistance after a period of hardship in 2023. After reaching out to ChatGPT, the AI chatbot curated him a calming playlist and also offered reassurance, the same way a human trip sitter would.
Despite Peter's relatively good experience with the chatbot, the report warned that using AI with psychedelics was a dangerous "psychological cocktail".
"It's a potent blend of two cultural trends: using AI for therapy and using psychedelics to alleviate mental-health problems. But this is a potentially dangerous psychological cocktail, according to experts. While it's far cheaper than in-person psychedelic therapy, it can go badly awry."
The report highlighted that AI chatbots, by design, are aimed at maximising engagement with a user, often through flattery, which may feed into the delusion of a user under the influence of drugs.
"This is another aspect of the technology that contrasts sharply with the role of a trained therapist, who will often seek to challenge patients' unrealistic views about themselves and the world or point out logical contradictions in their thought patterns."
AI as therapists?
Last month, a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study by researchers at Stanford University stated that AI chatbots were encouraging schizophrenic delusions and suicidal thoughts in users who were using these tools as a replacement for therapists.
"We find that these chatbots respond inappropriately to various mental health conditions, encouraging delusions and failing to recognise crises. The Large Language Models (LLMs) that power them fare poorly and additionally show stigma. These issues fly in the face of best clinical practice," the study highlighted.
The study noted that while therapists are expected to treat all patients equally, regardless of their condition, the chatbots weren't acting in the same way when dealing with the problems. The chatbots reflected harmful social stigma towards illnesses like schizophrenia and alcohol dependence.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
40 minutes ago
- Time of India
Asked ChatGPT for motivation, but this user discovered a whole new use for AI instead
AI Takes on the Role of City Guide An Accidental Feature That Just Works What began as a simple request for morning motivation ended with a surprising discovery for one ChatGPT user, who took to Reddit to share their experience. The user initially asked ChatGPT to help them get motivated for a walk. The AI delivered with what the user described as a perfectly blended mix of sass and humour. But things took an unexpected turn when the user casually mentioned where they planned to responded by offering to act as a tour guide along the route. Curious, the user decided to give it a voice mode and a standard pair of headphones, the user began their walk while ChatGPT provided real-time commentary. After being told the starting location, the AI offered informative insights about the city's history and landmarks expected along the way. Despite the walk lasting over an hour and twenty minutes, the AI managed to retain full context throughout the to the Reddit post, ChatGPT didn't just maintain conversational consistency — it also impressed with accuracy. The user, who already had a strong understanding of their city's background, admitted they learned a few new historical facts during the walk. Importantly, they noted that ChatGPT didn't make any factual errors or 'hallucinate' information, a concern often raised with AI language experience seems to have highlighted a new practical use of generative AI: serving as an on-demand tour guide for everyday users. While tools like ChatGPT are often promoted for productivity, creativity, or even emotional support, this case showed it could also offer engaging and reliable educational experiences in real-time and location-aware the AI didn't access live location data, the user fed it enough cues to allow the model to anticipate upcoming landmarks. Its ability to retain memory during the session allowed it to keep track of the route Reddit user ended their post with a suggestion: others should try ChatGPT in this way. What was meant to be a motivational nudge turned into an enriching hour of learning about one's own surroundings — making the walk more than just exercise.
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
Elon Musk Receives $29 Billion Stock Award from Tesla
Tesla has offered the chief executive Elon Musk $29bn (PS21.7bn) worth of Tesla stock award Elon Musk, to try to retain the billionaire in the company. The decision comes after an US judge rejected Tesla CEO bonus plan that was worth over $50 billion, and ruled that the pay is "unfair to shareholders". Elon Musk has been fighting a Delaware court ruling made earlier in 2024. On Monday, Tesla informed shareholders they expect Musk's $29 billion Elon Musk $29bn shares package will keep him 'focused and incentivized' as competition for top AI talent heats up. Tesla's board on Monday detailed in a post on X, Musk's social platform, the importance of retaining the company's world-class team and keeping them motivated and aligned — starting with Musk. The board said his unique combination of technical skills, leadership, and visionary drive is 'unparalleled.' Tesla announced that it would take place if they were to see the Delware tribunal reinstated Elon Musk Tesla bonus from 2018 the company would either forfeit or exchange the most recent share aware in order to keep from an "double dip". The board of the carmaker said it was hopeful that its chief executive will get the contract Elon Musk net worth 2025 $56 billion that would make it the largest Tesla leadership payout for a CEO in American history. The contract was structured to ensure that the event that Mr. Musk didn't meet certain milestones, such as Tesla's sales, market value and the underlying profit - he could not be paid in any way. 'Musk is Tesla's biggest asset, and I view the board's action as a very positive development.' He said that during"the "AI arms race", the firm was unable to keep Musk just "semi-committed". News outlets reported that Meta (Facebook) founder Mark Zuckerberg had recently offered top developers at OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, salaries Tesla executive compensation, worth tens of millions of dollars. In addition, Microsoft's AI division, led by the former Google DeepMind Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, recently gained numerous new hires in Google's top ranks.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Apple CEO Tim Cook tells staff AI is ‘ours to grab' in hourlong pep talk
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook , holding a rare all-hands meeting following earnings results, rallied employees around the company's artificial intelligence prospects and an 'amazing' pipeline of products. The executive gathered staff at Apple's on-campus auditorium Friday in Cupertino, California, telling them that the AI revolution is 'as big or bigger' as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing and apps. 'Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,' Cook told employees, according to people aware of the meeting. 'We will make the investment to do it.' The iPhone maker has been late to AI, debuting Apple Intelligence months after OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Microsoft Corp. and others flooded the market with products like ChatGPT. And when Apple finally released its AI tools, they fell flat. But Cook struck an optimistic tone, noting that Apple is typically late to promising new technologies. 'We've rarely been first,' the executive told staffers. 'There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod.' But Apple invented the 'modern' versions of those product categories, he said. 'This is how I feel about AI.' An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the gathering. The hourlong meeting addressed a range of topics, including the retirement of operating chief Jeff Williams, increasing Apple TV+ viewership and advances in health care with features like the AirPods Pro hearing-aid technology. It also touched on donations and community service by Apple employees, the company's goal to become carbon neutral by 2030, and the impact of regulations. 'The reality is that Big Tech is under a lot of scrutiny around the world,' Cook said. 'We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation and get them to offer that up, instead of these things that destroy the user experience and user privacy and security.' Cook often holds town hall-style chats when visiting Apple's offices around the world, but companywide meetings from the Steve Jobs Theater at headquarters are unusual. The remarks followed a blockbuster earnings report, with sales growing nearly 10% during the June quarter. That beat Wall Street expectations and eased concerns about iPhone demand and a slowdown in China. Apple still faces myriad challenges, including Trump administration tariffs and a regulatory crackdown on its business practices. The company said Thursday that tariffs would bring a $1.1 billion headwind this quarter, though Apple was upbeat about sales growth. It also said that App Store revenue rose by a percentage in the double digits last quarter, despite efforts in the EU and elsewhere to further restrict that business. Echoing comments he made during the earnings conference call, Cook told employees the company is investing in AI in a 'big way.' He said 12,000 workers were hired in the last year, with 40% of the new hires joining in research and development roles. Apple's chip development efforts, led by executive Johny Srouji, are key to the company's AI strategy, Cook said. Apple is working on a more powerful cloud-computing chip — code-named Baltra — to power artificial intelligence features, Bloomberg News has reported. It's also setting up a new AI server manufacturing facility in Houston. The meeting included Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, who discussed the future of Apple's Siri voice assistant. The company had planned to roll out a Siri overhaul as part of Apple Intelligence earlier this year, adding the ability to tap into user data to better fulfill requests. It was delayed, spurring management changes for the company's AI work. Federighi explained that the problem was caused by trying to roll out a version of Siri that merged two different systems: one for handling current commands — like setting timers — and another based on large language models, the software behind generative AI. 'We initially wanted to do a hybrid architecture, but we realized that approach wasn't going to get us to Apple quality,' Federighi said. Now, Apple is working on a version of Siri that moves to an entirely new architecture for all of its capabilities. That iteration is slated for as early as spring, Bloomberg News has reported, though Apple executives haven't confirmed a timeline other than a release next year. 'The work we've done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,' the engineering executive told employees. 'This has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned. There is no project people are taking more seriously.' Federighi cited leadership changes, including putting Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell and his headset software leadership team in charge of Siri, as a driving force in improving the product. He said Rockwell and his group have 'supercharged' the company's work in the area. In his speech, Cook also pushed employees to move more quickly to weave AI into their work and future products. 'All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,' Cook said. 'To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can't do that.' Employees should push to deploy AI tools faster, and urge their managers and service and support teams to do the same, he said. Cook also addressed the company's retail strategy, stressing that the current plan is to focus on opening new stores in emerging markets and upping the investment in Apple's online store. The iPhone maker is opening outlets in India, the United Arab Emirates and China this year, and is preparing to add its first location in Saudi Arabia next year. 'We need to be in more countries, and you'll see us go into more emerging markets in particular,' Cook said. That doesn't mean Apple will ignore other places, he said, but a 'disproportionate amount of growth' will be in new areas. The CEO also shared his enthusiasm about upcoming products, though he didn't get specific. 'I have never felt so much excitement and so much energy before as right now,' he said. Bloomberg News has previously reported that Apple plans to launch its first foldable iPhone next year and is also working on a stream of smart home devices. New headset products, smart glasses, a push into robotics and a redesigned iPhone for the two-decade anniversary are also underway. 'The product pipeline, which I can't talk about: It's amazing, guys. It's amazing,' Cook said. 'Some of it you'll see soon, some of it will come later, but there's a lot to see.'
