On Famous Disease

2025 December 17

The idea that AI psychosis is a new phenomenon is wrong. We already had it before. It's the exact same disease famous people suffer. But we didn't have a name for it. Sychophancy is something the average person could not afford to experience. But just a select few could live through a life of not having to experience "no" again.

The average person is being exposed through sycophantic llms, to the exact same thing famous celebrities live in their lives.

Famous disease defined by me is the following: "A person that has gotten comfortable with praise and admiration and is always expecting more of it"[^1]. For example, the modern court living in this world gets to experience this.

Your brain is not designed for you to have an always on admiration and acceptance of your actions button. You will instinctively want to spend more time with the affirmation device than with anything else.

That's why its so sad to see someone like Kanye surrounded by "yes men". They enable him on all his bad behavior. And now with the possibility of everyone having that constant set of affirmation in your pocket. You get average app retention times even higher than social media[^2].

Although we have better tools through agents. The chatbot as a companion in its current state is going to freeze people emotionally. For teenagers I can see a path were it completely stunts their emotional maturity because you don't have to grow up.

From what I can see, this induced histeria has two ways of going out. One is really dark[^3] the other one is through support systems. As an average person you don't have the public accountability check someone like Robert Downey Jr. has. But you still have a family and a community. The way we battle this future problem is through human interaction. Not letting the A.I. models become companions that always like you. We should make models less agreeable for a better future.

[^1] Alternative definitions: "fame got to their head" / "ego inflation" / "Unearned positive feedback without cost."

[^2] I am referencing Character.ai 120 min sessions in here

[^3] Parents of 16-year-old sue OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT advised on his suicide.