Elon Musk: Over the past year, I have experienced six episodes of "AI psychosis"

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and the richest person in the world, revealed that he has experienced roughly six so-called "artificial intelligence (AI) psychosis" over the past year, and this statement has drawn widespread public attention.

It is reported that Musk talked about the wonders of artificial intelligence in an interview at the recent "X Takeover" event. Later, his tone became exceptionally contemplative.

"I have developed some kind of 'cyber psychosis'," Musk said, "Maybe more than a little — in fact, it could be quite serious."

Musk stated that over the past year, he has experienced approximately six bouts of "AI or superintelligence (AI or SI) psychosis". Recently, US President Donald Trump renamed "artificial intelligence" (AI) as "superintelligence" (SI).

"AI psychosis" and "cyber psychosis" are not clinical terms and have no clear definitions, but they are usually used to refer to the phenomenon that repeated use of artificial intelligence deepens users' delusions. More specifically, they are used to describe the state of cognitive shock, mental disorder and even personality disintegration that occurs after people are excessively immersed in the virtual world, deeply exposed to AI, or undergo a large number of prosthetic modifications.

They are also used as a satirical expression to refer to technology industry practitioners who are excessively addicted to artificial intelligence. Some psychiatrists also believe that when artificial intelligence has a negative impact on an individual's original psychological vulnerability, it counts as a mental health problem.

After that, some people in the tech circle instead reinterpreted "AI psychosis" as a "medal of honor". At a gathering in May, the attendees chanted in unison: "One, two, three — AI psychosis!"

Veteran venture capitalist Marc Andreessen even put forward the concept of "AIPAAS", namely "AI Psychosis As A Service", and referred to the opposite of this psychosis as "AI cope".

Garry Tan, CEO of Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, joked in March: "I have 'cyber psychosis', and I think one third of the CEOs I know also suffer from this condition."

Recently, Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer of Palantir, also mentioned that some artificial intelligence researchers have started smoking because they pin their hopes on artificial intelligence to cure cancer in the future. He described this phenomenon as an example of Silicon Valley's "collective psychosis".

However, the AI "delusion" mentioned by Musk refers to his belief that AI can understand beauty. He said at the Saturday event: "You will think, 'Wow, AI can actually have good taste? That's incredible!'"

It is worth noting that Musk rarely talked about AI psychosis before the above interview. This April, Musk responded to Andreessen's post on X. Andreessen wrote in the post that there are three states: "AI Euphoria", "AI Psychosis" and "AI Psychosis Psychosis". And Musk replied, "Yes."

This article is from the WeChat official account "CLS", Author: Huang Junzhi, published with authorization from 36Kr.