AI is making people crazy.

And I don’t mean in the sense that it’s driving tech observers like me crazy, with its reckless adoption path and dishonest marketing and screwy incentives. I mean it’s literally making otherwise reasonable people believe that their AI chatbots are lovers, or prisoners, or prophets of hidden wisdom.

In this hourlong conversation with tech educator Morten Rand-Hendricksen (his TikTok and his YouTube are worth a follow), we try to surround the topic from two sides. Mine is the psychological and ideological side, which I used to frame the thesis of my book The Loop: How A.I. is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back. Morten’s is the bits and bytes that have been assembled to give the impression that this language-mirroring system has somehow developed reasoning, and a personality, and special insight into who you are. He does a tremendous job here explaining why this simulation of companionship is so thin, and so powerful, and so dangerous. And he has some real tactics to share for all of us in fighting back.