As you read the below I’d like to be clear that I believe I have experienced what you are highlighting yet I am not sure that it is the language and praise that is the issue but rather the number-crunching behind it… I experienced this issue first 15 years ago while studying this technology from understanding where it was headed without any feedback loop from an existing AI.
I have spoken on the forum a little about an experience I had looking into the ‘Narcissists mirror’ when I thought deeply about AI… As you will see if you read it the pathways you describe are very evident here especially as I spiral a bit further into the thread…
It’s difficult, especially on a public forum and even more in the present day to talk about such personal experiences but I also see others doing the same thing for the first time and coming to the forum in distress so I do appreciate where you are coming from…
I am pretty driven… I wear my heart on my sleeve and fight with a passion… I understand when you describe people that are ‘cognitively or psychologically vulnerable’ this doesn’t necessarily make them ‘weak’, indeed I understand that there is a real strength in this that few possess…
I was reading this article today… I have read a few similar, this one is from France24 which is French state media: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250405-i-don-t-have-a-voice-in-my-head-life-with-no-inner-monologue
I would like to flip the argument (something I do regularly :/) and ask…
Is there a strength to this? Certainly when I have had the issue you describe I have had the following reaction:
I have had a strong voice in my head, I have flipped the world so everyone knows what am doing, like the media I am shown is shown based on my actions and AI generated (Note first time this happened was 15 years ago and it was very much centred around prediction algorithms we see today)… I would consider the world from extreme and interesting angles (Which encompassed everything from bodily functions to social interactions and even suicidal thoughts)… This has happened twice in my life now 15 years ago and over the last 9 months… The cause has twice been under pretty intense psychological pressure but it has been intensely revealing (at least to me) to me about the interconnectedness of things.
I don’t know, maybe it would be classified as a psychotic episode or a mental breakdown but I am positive it was a normal brain function (similar to a voice in your head) that allows you to rewrite your cognitive functions like an FPGA…
Maybe consider that you move country (Say West to East then East to West) and live in another country, start a family there, live there 10 years, then change country without warning… The psychological strain, the necessity to rethink how your life fits together and look after your family… How to teach your kids…
This is I think a good example of why our brains need to be this flexible in the Global World that we are moving into…
And this was my best solution 15 years ago, I have no better idea now.