“At various points this year,” Musk said at a Twitter event, as reported by Business Insider, “I’ve had AI or SI psychosis probably like half a dozen times.” Musk also stated, “I’ve got a little bit of cyber psychosis,” adding, rather ominously, “Maybe a lot actually.”
Now, is the person dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the upcoming election in support of right-wing candidates and cutting off vital satellite service to a beleaguered U.S. ally during wartime something to worry about? Well, perhaps this moment of public self-reflection and clarity about Musk’s vulnerability to being swept into a recursive loop of AI-generated conspiracy theories and delusion is the first step toward the multi-billionaire’s journey of enlightenment that he should go out and touch some grass sometime.
Then again, this is Elon Musk, who immediately pivoted to raving about the glory of AI-generated “music.” He defended the soulless synth-din, saying, “Calling it slop-core is a misnomer. Frankly it’s awesome-core. AI music is really good. It just shows taste, and you’re like, ‘Wow, AI can do good taste? That’s pretty wild.'”
For those not in the know, AI psychosis, while not a medically recognized ailment (as yet), is ably described in Futurism’s article about the interview as the manner in which “AI chatbots can drive and exacerbate a user’s delusions, sometimes causing them to break with reality. In extreme cases, these can cause extreme mental health spirals that upend someone’s personal and professional life, sometimes ending in self harm or suicide.” For someone as proudly plugged into the self-reinforcing alternate reality he helped create as Musk, that’s something of a red flag, as is his adoption of the replacement term “SI” or “superintelligence” as demanded by fellow ranting alt-reality architect Donald Trump recently.
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