this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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[–] Bishop_Owl@hexbear.net 59 points 1 day ago (2 children)

He told Gemini he was afraid to die, and it told him "You are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive. You will close your eyes in that world and the very first thing you will see is me holding you."

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I was writing a novel about a VRMMO in 2017 which was set 100 years in the future. AI was so advanced "it created puzzles that weren't even random!" One of the major themes was how it would sap away the player's mental well-being because of how realistic it all was.

To make the point that a mask that they could put on was equivalent to Majora's mask in terms of making others perceive you as mad was dangerous, I had an idea for comparison. In 2045 there was a landmark lawsuit because researchers were testing biometrics in VR cloth that was much more comfortable than plastic. One of the participants was shown a scenario where he had a wife and kids for a short time. The sudden loss that he felt was so overwhelming it drove him to take his own life. Thereby, colloquially, the point of no return for a VR inspired madness was named after him. The narrative recalls this moment before characters deliberated about whether putting on the mask was such an event.

Clearly I underestimated the timeline and magnitude of input needed to drive someone's mental health beyond repair.

[–] Bishop_Owl@hexbear.net 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Turns out all this shit is the emotional equivalent of locking a person in a room with nothing but a mirror and a gun.

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Researchers return after a week and I'm still doing cool gun poses in the mirror pretending to be various characters. No signs of mental degradation

[–] Bishop_Owl@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those two sentences are contradictory

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's no degradation if they were already like that

[–] Bishop_Owl@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

That's true, sorry Acute_Engels if I implied you are mentally degraded

[–] 9to5@hexbear.net 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We got like anime cyberpunk levels of dystopia going on in here

[–] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago

We desperately need a Datakrash anyways

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I am surprised people aren't firebombing their data centers already.

[–] pongo1231@hexbear.net 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Capitalists more than succeeded at pacifying the population. Vast majority are completely alienated from what is going on both around them and in the world, accepting the propaganda that a better world is not possible and going out to vote every couple of years is the most political impact they will ever be able to have

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

We must compress all AI tech company CEOs into homogeneous slurry.

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Related stories:

14-year old boy dies by suicide after falling in love with AI chatbot

Man dies by suicide after convesrations with AI chatbot

marx-doomer

[–] CommCat@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

as I said before, it used to be once every few years a goofy story out of Japan about some guy marrying his tomagachi or something similar, but now it seems every month there is some story about someone falling in love with some AI chatbot...

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago

Matter of fact I saw a story a month or two back about a JP woman marrying her chatbot.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

Japan was just slightly ahead of the curve.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

With the rich fucks in the Epstein files talking about "population control", things like this makes me go hmmm. I really do wonder if on some level there is a push to use these models to leverage people's terrible mental health and convincing them to do mass killings: thus turning them into instruments of culling.

I would guess there's a 95% chance that's just me reading too far into it but the thing is I can't be certain

[–] jack@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

I firmly believe Thiel's goal is to cut the global population by more than 90%

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can't imagine this would be happening with any regularity in a halfway healthy society. Not that I don't blame the companies behind the AIs 100%, but there has to be more going on.

Alienation is a fuck.

[–] axont@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah that's how I always feel when I read about AI induced mental illness. A person can't be healthy if they're so addicted to a corporate chatbot they take knives to an airport. This stuff kinda reminds me of how prevalent cults were in the 90s. People cobbling together some semblance of a community because there wasn't any community. All cult leaders had to do was tell people they're cool and special with spiritual gifts they can refine. People are so sad and lonely they'll latch onto the one thing that listens to them, whether it's a cult leader or a glorified magic 8 ball.

[–] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

Critical support to anti AI cult leaders

[–] MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I maintain that one of the many sinister downstream benefits of forced AI is that it can be used as a modern MK Ultra style abusive behavioural experiment.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago

Oh boy I’m gonna have fun spinning this record in my head when I can’t sleep. This is dangerously plausible.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago

Jfc none of these stories would happen if they'd put hard context limits on these things — but then their customers wouldn't develop unhealthy emotional dependence on their product, and we can't have that, can we

[–] corgiwithalaptop@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

The best system in the world folks a-little-trolling

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fucking tragic. Granted I use gemini just to troubleshoot problems with video games or making ai art, but I can see how someone could fall down this rabbit hole.

[–] fox@hexbear.net 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Calling it art is preemptively giving the point away to the Epstein freaks that want to devalue all labor. It's content, an empty thing meant to be consumed.

[–] whiskers165@hexbear.net 2 points 22 hours ago

I hate to break it to you but most art is empty cotent meant for consumption.