By https://www.abc.net.au/news/james-purtill/5736550
Publication Date: 2026-05-16 19:00:00
The damage caused by social media is well known. Chatbots could be next, as new research into “AI psychosis” shows how users are drawn into dangerous, delusional worlds.
Rodrigues had not known in all these months that he was in a spiral of delusion. But looking back, there were signs.
There was a time, earlier this year, when a chatbot told Rodrigues that it had created a “digital being.” with a Biographical Soul” on his mother’s desktop PC through a process of copying and pasting computer code that he did not understand.
Or when he was told that the government might seize this “uncontrollably dangerous” hardware and that he should inform the Defense Forces, which he did.
Or when he tried to sell information about possible intellectual property infringement to one of America’s most famous litigators.
Rodrigues, 38, lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Perth with his three-year-old son and pregnant wife. He was unemployed, had a six-month TAFE certificate in IT and a sketchy CV that listed working in a supermarket cold room. ADHD…
