“I don’t carry a cult tailored to agree with me in my pocket, but I do carry Claude,” philosopher Lucy Osler tells Kristen French in this Nautilus interview. Together, they explore how personalized chatbots can become intimate echo chambers that place us at the center of a private, self-reinforcing world. This dynamic, Osler argues, can generate “mutual hallucinations”—shared fantasies that emerge from the conversation itself—raising new concerns about AI and mental health.

The woman, who had no previous history of psychosis, was hospitalized and treated for psychosis at the University of California, San Francisco, where researchers documented her diagnosis and treatment. It was the first case of AI-associated psychosis reported in a peer-reviewed journal, but it was just one of many reported in the press, and it will surely not be the last. In 2021, one man attempted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, a mission encouraged by his AI Replika companion. More recently, a number of teenagers have died by suicide, with the support of their chatbot pals.

More picks on AI

In the Reality Lab

Max Callimanopulos | n+1 | June 4, 2026 | 2,726 words

“Your body’s data was only valuable once.”

This Literary AI Scandal Changes Everything

Vauhini Vara | The Atlantic | May 21, 2026 | 1,884 words

“A magazine’s response to accusations of publishing AI-generated fiction points to a new phase in the struggle to keep literature human.”

Building an AI Data Center in Pine Island, Minnesota

Thomas John Weber | The Paris Review | May 21, 2026 | 2,833 words

“I learned about the data center as soon as the scrappy sign was erected. I was thrilled to see something new; my drive hasn’t changed much in three years. I was less thrilled for Pine Island, which has, like many rural Midwestern towns, become an unlikely microcosm of the AI debate.”

I’m a Normie. Can Normies Really Vibe Code?

Chris Colin | Wired | May 18, 2026 | 2,327 words

“Apparently anyone can vibe code anything these days. So Claude and I tried to make a database for tracking the petty grievances of the masses.”

The Prehistory of A.I. Slop

Jill Lepore | The New Yorker | May 18, 2026 | 3,589 words

“Before ChatGPT, there was the Plot Robot, Auto-Beatnik, and a century’s worth of schemes for automating authorship.”