On top environmental, politicalAnd social losses AI has taken over the world, it is also linked to a serious mental health crisis in which users falling into error and in the end placed in psychiatric institutionsor even died by suicide.
Take Caitlin Nehr. I am writing to essay for NewsweekNer talks about her experience working as the head of user experience at an AI imaging startup, a job she says led her to AI-induced mental health disorder.
In her candid account, Ner says it all started at work, where she spent more than nine hours a day building the first generative AI systems of the 2023 era. Although the images he created were often mutilated and distorted, it still “felt like magic”—at least at first.
“After a few months, this magic turned manic,” she wrote.
Ner wrote that these early images “began to distort the perception of my body and overstimulate my brain, which was truly detrimental to my mental health.” But even when A.I. I learned to take it calmly Despite the number of fingers he created on the human hand, his images still required mental effort, trading anatomical errors for scenes populated by incredibly slender and beautiful figures.
“Seeing these kinds of AI images over and over again changed my sense of normalcy,” Ner explained. “When I looked at my real reflection, I saw something that needed fixing.”
At one pivotal moment, Ner began experimenting with AI images of herself as a fashion model, a directive set by her company that targeted users interested in fashion. “I found myself thinking, 'If only I looked like my AI version,'” she wrote. “I was obsessed with becoming thinner, having a better body and perfect skin.”
She soon began losing sleep to generate more and more images, which she called “addictive” because each image produced a “little hit of dopamine.” Although Ner had successfully treated her bipolar disorder before taking up faux clothing design, this new obsession developed into a “manic bipolar episode,” which she said triggered an episode of psychosis.
“When I saw the AI-generated image of me on a flying horse, I began to believe that I could actually fly,” Ner writes. “The voices told me to fly off the balcony, gave me confidence that I could survive. This huge delusion almost pushed me to jump.”
Luckily, she pulled herself together and began turning to friends and family for help. The doctor helped her realize that her job had started a spiral that led her to leave her artificial intelligence startup. “I now understand that what happened to me was not just a coincidence of mental illness and technology,” she explains. “It was a form of digital addiction brought on by months of AI image creation.”
She has since jumped ship to become a director at another fashion company, PsyMed Ventures. Newsweek is described as a venture fund investing in mental health and brain health. Many PsyMed companies are investing in functional AI tools, which Ner says she still uses today, albeit with a newfound sense of respect.
More about AI: Man describes how ChatGPT led him straight to psychosis
