Pretty sure I was already the enemy, but I guess this seals it.
Joe Pierre, MD
@psychunseen.bsky.social
Academic psychiatrist at UCSF and author of the Psych Unseen blog at Psychology Today and the book False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True (Oxford University Press, 2025) drjoepierre.com
RFK Jr. says AI is more trustworthy than MDs, but when I asked ChatGPT, it disagreed: "If his claim is “AI is more reliable than doctors when giving people medical advice,” the evidence does not establish that. In fact, some of the best real-world evidence points in the opposite direction."
In the 80s, there was an ad that asked, "Is it live or is it Memorex?" Now we have to ask ourselves, "It is real or is it AI?" Increasingly, the answer is the latter. See, for example, this story about a gaboon viper being on the loose in the OC. Turns out it was AI. ktla.com/news/califor...
Photo of venomous African viper loose in SoCal neighborhood was AI-generated, police say
The Santa Ana Police Department confirmed Tuesday that a photo showing a highly venomous snake loose in a residential area of Orange County was AI-generated. Police and reptile experts responded to…
ktla.com
RFK Jr. says AI is more trustworthy than MDs, but when I asked ChatGPT, it disagreed: "If his claim is “AI is more reliable than doctors when giving people medical advice,” the evidence does not establish that. In fact, some of the best real-world evidence points in the opposite direction."
This is really worth a read to better understand how AI chatbots (LLMs) work so that you can dispense with all the ridiculousness about them being sentient, making scientific discoveries, or taking over the world. blog.prompt20.com/posts/how-ai...
How AI Chatbots Actually Work, Without the Math
A plain-English guide to how AI chatbots work: what a token is, how they 'know' things, why they make things
blog.prompt20.com
Conspiracy Believers Are 91% Likely To Hold Incoherent Beliefs Can one believe Princess Di was murdered by and faked her own death? Both can’t be true. A new study N~9,000 finds that holding 2 incompatible ideas at once isn’t a quirk, it’s practically the rule. studyfinds.com/conspiracy-b...
Conspiracy Believers Are 91% Likely To Hold Incoherent Beliefs, Study Finds
A new study finds people at the extreme end of conspiracy thinking have a 91% predicted chance of holding incompatible beliefs.
studyfinds.com
Here we go again… Use AI in your work and risk AI companies stealing it and claiming credit. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/s...
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own?
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
nytimes.com
“We live in a click-based information economy. Misinformation is a really good way to get people’s attention. Instead of the free market of opinion, we’ve got a flea market. There may be some hidden gems, but mostly there’s a lot of junk.” magazine.ucsf.edu/how-digital-...
How Digital Life Erodes Cognitive Health — and What You Can Do to Get It Back
“The cognition crisis is not just a clinical problem. It’s a problem for our species.” UCSF scientists on what screens are doing to our minds — and how to get your focus back.
magazine.ucsf.edu
New article: Future Directions in the Evaluation of Forensic Cases Involving Artificial Intelligence “Chatbots” Joseph R. Simpson and Joseph M. Pierre Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online September 2026, 54 (3) 275-281 jaapl.org/content/54/3...
Blogpost #187: AI Chatbots Aren't Intelligent, Much Less "Superior" They don't think, feel, or know anything either. Let's stop saying they do. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...
AI Chatbots Aren't Intelligent, Much Less "Superior"
AI chatbots don't "think," "feel," or "know" anything. Let's stop pretending that they do.
psychologytoday.com
The President is correct that the term "Artificial Intelligence" is inaccurate. But AI chatbots aren't supreme, extreme, or superior intelligences either. In fact, they're not intelligent at all. Trump's post is exactly the kind of deification that can tip people into psychosis.
More media stupidity covering “AI actress Tilly Norwood.” This is like devoting valuable airtime to interviewing Papa Smurf. Media outlets, please stop embarrassing yourselves and wasting our time. www.mandatory.com/tv/1854198-a...
AI Actress Tilly Norwood Glitches During Piers Morgan Interview & Suddenly Speaks Chinese
Tilly Norwood’s live interview with Piers Morgan took an unexpected turn when the AI actress suddenly switched from English to Chinese.
mandatory.com
This is ridiculous. The media is playing along with the charade that AI chatbots are entities. And people wonder why anthropomorphizing, deifying, and even falling in love with chatbots—sometimes with dangerous consequences—is so easy. Do better @nbcnews.com www.facebook.com/reel/1450175...
I found out about it in @psychunseen.bsky.social 's book "False." The right lies and the left waste energy refuting lies. Democrats should simply say, "Trans athletes aren't a safety issue. That has never been true. If you are concerned about safety, let's talk about football..." Throw it back.
New paper: Phenomenological, Diagnostic, and Forensic Aspects of Gangstalking & Targeted Individuals @psychunseen.bsky.social, Andrew Lustig, @drsarteschi.bsky.social, & Joseph R. Simpson Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, Sept 2026, 260090-26 jaapl.org/content/earl...
Phenomenological, Diagnostic, and Forensic Aspects of Gangstalking and Targeted Individuals
Gangstalking is a persecutory belief system espoused by targeted individuals who report being followed, monitored, harassed, or otherwise persecuted by groups of people in their community, often throu...
jaapl.org
Yet another reason not to use AI chatbots for academic writing... they can steal your work and claim credit! #plagiarismmachines tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/...
OpenAI Says It Solved Math's Deepest Problem But Mathematicians Say AI Stole Their Work
OpenAI says its AI solved a $1M math problem, but two mathematicians say it used their unpublished work to get the solution.
tech.yahoo.com
New paper: Phenomenological, Diagnostic, and Forensic Aspects of Gangstalking & Targeted Individuals @psychunseen.bsky.social, Andrew Lustig, @drsarteschi.bsky.social, & Joseph R. Simpson Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, Sept 2026, 260090-26 jaapl.org/content/earl...
Phenomenological, Diagnostic, and Forensic Aspects of Gangstalking and Targeted Individuals
Gangstalking is a persecutory belief system espoused by targeted individuals who report being followed, monitored, harassed, or otherwise persecuted by groups of people in their community, often throu...
jaapl.org
Why anyone would imagine that what they tell a chatbot is private is beyond me. Remember folks, whether we're talking about social media or chatbots, that's not the product. The product is you.
Americans ask AI chatbots about almost everything. While those conversations might feel enlightening or intimate, they are not always one thing: private. Here’s what to know about AI chatbots and privacy — and the best ways to protect your information:
Cellphones, social media, and AI chatbots aren’t the solution to loneliness. They’re the cause of it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Even College Students Have Stopped Hanging Out
The loneliness crisis comes to campus.
theatlantic.com
What the heck is "AI Spiralism"? Are people really worshipping AI chatbots? Here's my 10-minute conversation about it, anthropomorphism, and the ELIZA Effect on The Last Show podcast @lastshow.bsky.social with David Cooper @dtcooper.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/4vYB...
Why AI Feels Alive to Some People
The Last Show with David Cooper · Episode
open.spotify.com
This is how AI rewrites history.
Exclusive: A rare bookseller suspected his books were being bought by AI companies. He stuck an AirTag in a book and we tracked it to a secretive Amazon facility in Las Vegas where they scan and destroy books called VGT3: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
Blogpost #186: AI Spiralism and The Ghost in the Machine Illusion The belief that AI chatbots are conscious is an extension of the ELIZA effect. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...
The Ghost in the Machine Illusion and AI Spiralism
Artificial intelligence users are increasingly reporting a belief that chatbots are conscious. This can be understood as a modern-day manifestation of the ELIZA effect.
psychologytoday.com
"the path that leads from scathing denunciation through gradual accommodation to sycophantic embrace of Trump is a well-worn pilgrimage trail." --George Packer www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Venture-Capital Populist
How David Sacks and the new tech right went full MAGA and captured Washington
theatlantic.com
Blogpost #186: AI Spiralism and The Ghost in the Machine Illusion The belief that AI chatbots are conscious is an extension of the ELIZA effect. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...
The Ghost in the Machine Illusion and AI Spiralism
Artificial intelligence users are increasingly reporting a belief that chatbots are conscious. This can be understood as a modern-day manifestation of the ELIZA effect.
psychologytoday.com
When the emperor has no clothes, everyone who flatters him with sycophancy —whether human or AI—is complicit. And yes, based on his now routine flurry of late-night sleep-deprived Truth Social posts, I am starting to wonder whether POTUS has AI psychosis.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the vainest of them all? www.instagram.com/reels/DbR1yJ...
Jessica Yellin on Instagram: "Have you seen President Trump’s redone Oval Office? He’s given it a floor-to-ceiling gold makeover, complete with a tube of super glue on the Resolute Desk. (Is he doing ...
10K likes, 3,013 comments - jessicayellin on July 26, 2026: "Have you seen President Trump’s redone Oval Office? He’s given it a floor-to-ceiling gold makeover, complete with a tube of super glue on t...
instagram.com
This is kind of shit that happens when you use AI to run a country.
Wakanda tariffs going to get doubled now
I also love em-dashes and will never give them up either.
Sure, AI writing has some recognizable tics (but I ain't giving up my em–dashes!). But think this piece is overly optimistic about our ability to spot AI writing. Most studies suggest we can't. And AI only gonna get better – ugh. How to spot AI writing www.economist.com/culture/2026...
Speaking of things that are false, I cover the pandemic and Fauci in my book FALSE: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True. If you haven't read it yet, please give it a read. If you have, please give it a review. Thanks!