🤖Symptoms of Paranoia Simulated by Computer🧠💻
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This article explores an early example of AI mimicking human mental health conditions, specifically paranoia. Scientists at Stanford University programmed a computer to simulate verbal symptoms of paranoia, enabling psychiatrists to interact with the "electronic patient" via typed questions and receive realistic, contextually relevant responses.
The conversations between psychiatrists and the computer demonstrated the AI's ability to replicate the thought patterns and responses characteristic of paranoid individuals. For instance, the computer expressed nervousness around people and a sensitivity to being stared at, hallmarks of paranoia. These responses were nuanced enough to occasionally convince psychiatrists that they were interacting with a real patient.
Interestingly, transcripts of the computer’s responses and those from real patients were sent to psychiatrists for evaluation. Remarkably, the psychiatrists were only able to correctly distinguish the computer’s responses from actual patients' about half the time, illustrating how convincingly the AI captured the symptoms of paranoia.