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."

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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."

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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

“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

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.

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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.

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!

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