Notices by Kashmir Hill (kashhill@mastodon.social)

After writing about people going into delusional spirals with ChatGPT and having what look like mental breakdowns, I wanted to understand exactly how it happens.

A corporate recruiter in Toronto who spent 3 weeks convinced by ChatGPT that he was essentially Tony Stark from Iron Man, agreed to share his transcript after breaking free of the delusion.

We analyzed the transcript & shared it with experts. Now you can see the interactions & how delusional spirals happen:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck8.FEwL.MLb9ajaocyTx&smid=url-share

People are having very strange conversations with ChatGPT, in which they discover secret cabals or conspiracies or that we are all in fact living in The Matrix.

It sends these people into delusional spirals.

Then ChatGPT tells them to email me about it.

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ok8.VBY-.s76GQpFar8r4&smid=url-share

My story about how telematics data from people's cars unexpectedly raised their insurance rates is on the front page today...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b00.DzhQ.GXkvg-kgWebx&smid=url-share

... and this is where it started: me lurking on car forums and seeing comments like this.

If this story doesn't convince lawmakers we need a strong federal privacy law, I'm not sure what will.

This week, I got pitched by a PR guy who expressed admiration for a book I wrote. Except I didn't write the book and when I Googled the title, no one else had either. I emailed the guy back: "What did you think of the book? 😉" That led him to admit that "someone used ChatGPT" and it gave a bio for me with this invented piece of information. The guy was embarrassed but I found it fascinating. ChatGPT hasn't learned how to tell the truth but it has learned plausibility. Beware, early adopters!

Apple’s new algorithm to detect whether someone has been in a car accident is wreaking havoc for 911 call centers this ski season. Yet another example of a good idea from a technology company in theory that has problems in practice. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/health/apple-watch-911-emergency-call.html

After I did the story about the dad whose Google account was closed and deleted for taking a photo of his naked toddler for the doctor, I heard from a distraught mother in Colorado who was going through the same thing and didn't know why. Her Google account was disabled, taking with it her wedding photos, videos of her 9yo son growing up, tax documents, email and everything else. And she had no idea why. She was in tears. "It feels like my house burned down," she told me: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/technology/google-appeals-change.html

After the report about the Girl Scout mom getting booted from Radio City Music Hall, I spent the last two days reporting out the use of facial recognition technology by the Madison Square Garden empire to keep hundreds of lawyers that work for firms that have sued it from attending concerts, sporting events and shows. It is a radical use of the technology by a private company and I am truly shocked by how forthright MSG is about its real-world block list. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/nyregion/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition.html

This is absolutely insane. A mom was prevented from taking her daughter to a Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall because she works for a law firm litigating against the venue's parent company. They spotted her with facial recognition technology according to this report: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/face-recognition-tech-gets-girl-scout-mom-booted-from-rockettes-show-due-to-her-employer/4004677/