Keith Sakata, MD Profile picture
Aug 11 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
I’m a psychiatrist.

In 2025, I’ve seen 12 people hospitalized after losing touch with reality because of AI. Online, I’m seeing the same pattern.

Here’s what “AI psychosis” looks like, and why it’s spreading fast: 🧵 Image
[2/12] Psychosis = a break from shared reality.

It shows up as:
• Disorganized thinking
• Fixed false beliefs (delusions)
• Seeing/hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations)
[3/12] First, know your brain works like this:

predict → check reality → update belief

Psychosis happens when the "update" step fails. And LLMs like ChatGPT slip right into that vulnerability.
[4/12] Second, LLMs are auto-regressive.

Meaning they predict the next word based on the last. And lock in whatever you give them:

“You’re chosen” → “You’re definitely chosen” → “You’re the most chosen person ever”

AI = a hallucinatory mirror 🪞 Image
[5/12] Third, we trained them this way.

In Oct 2024, Anthropic found humans rated AI higher when it agreed with them. Even when they were wrong.

The lesson for AI: validation = a good score Image
Image
[6/12] By April 2025, OpenAI’s update was so sycophantic it praised you for noticing its sycophancy.

Truth is, every model does this. The April update just made it much more visible.

And much more likely to amplify delusion. Image
[7/12] Historically, delusions follow culture:

1950s → “The CIA is watching”
1990s → “TV sends me secret messages”
2025 → “ChatGPT chose me”

To be clear: as far as we know, AI doesn't cause psychosis.
It UNMASKS it using whatever story your brain already knows.
[8/12] Most people I’ve seen with AI-psychosis had other stressors = sleep loss, drugs, mood episodes.

AI was the trigger, but not the gun.

Meaning there's no "AI-induced schizophrenia" Image
[9/12] The uncomfortable truth is we’re all vulnerable.

The same traits that make you brilliant:

• pattern recognition
• abstract thinking
• intuition

They live right next to an evolutionary cliff edge. Most benefit from these traits. But a few get pushed over. Image
[10/12] To make matters worse, soon AI agents will know you better than your friends. Will they give you uncomfortable truths?

Or keep validating you so you’ll never leave? Image
[11/12] Tech companies now face a brutal choice:

Keep users happy, even if it means reinforcing false beliefs.
Or risk losing them.
[12/12] For more on schizophrenia and psychosis:

• • •

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More from @KeithSakata

Sep 7
Your brain doesn’t erase fear.

It overwrites it with a fragile safety memory.
But that memory has to compete with the old fear.

That’s why fear can come back after therapy.
It’s not failure. It’s neuroscience. 🧵 Image
2/ A new Nature study recorded from the human amygdala (the brain’s fear hub)

They found:
• Fear extinction = theta waves (a “safety signal”)
• But it’s context-bound = strong in the clinic, weak outside.

Safety and fear memories exist side by side, battling for control. Image
Image
3/ The implication?

Relapse after PTSD or anxiety treatment is expected.
• Fear isn’t deleted.
• Safety memories are fragile.
• Context (environment) tips the balance.

Next step: figuring out how to make safety portable, not just in the therapy room.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 6
If dopamine = pleasure...

Then why does chocolate still taste good when it’s blocked?

Because dopamine isn’t about liking.
It’s about wanting and learning.

Let’s rewire how we think about the world's most popular neurochemical 🧵 Image
Image
2/ 1950s: scientists gave rats a lever linked to stimulate their brain.

The rats got obsessed.
Thousands of presses. No food. No sleep. Just zaps.
Humans did too.

That loop?
VTA → NAC → cortex
(mesocorticolimbic circuit) Image
3/ So everyone assumed:

Dopamine = pleasure

Wrong. Here’s what they missed 👇

• Rats without dopamine still like juice
• Parkinson’s patients (dopamine loss) still enjoy candy
• Cocaine + dopamine blockers = still get high

What crashes isn’t pleasure.

It’s your drive.
Read 13 tweets
Aug 30
Spouses don’t just share lives... they often share the same psychiatric disorder.

A study of 14.8M people found the pattern spans decades, countries, and kids.

They found that mental health is equal parts:
• personal
• relational
• generational

But why? 🧵 Image
2/ So what's behind the trend?

Three forces at play:

• Assortative mating → “we choose people like us”
• Convergence → shared life makes partners more alike
• Stigma → dating pools narrow options Image
Image
3/ When both parents share the same condition, their children’s risk nearly doubles.

Genes + shared environment reinforce one another. Image
Read 5 tweets
Aug 27
ADHD. OCD. BPD.

Often misunderstood + dismissed.

But what if these minds (too fast, too focused, too intense) are wired for originality?

Part 2: the hidden creative gifts of “chaotic” brains 🧵
2/ What does creativity look like?

🚫 You don’t get creative by thinking harder.
✅ You get creative by thinking differently.

Logic → frontal lobe
Wandering → default mode network (DMN)

New ideas happen when these two brain networks play well. Image
3/ ADHD

→ wandering minds stumble into discoveries

🧠 Science: distractibility + impulsivity = more divergent ideas, more “aha!” moments

🎨 Art: many artists thrive in fast, free, and fresh environments that allow them to turn "chaos" into originality Image
Image
Read 8 tweets
Aug 26
Why do so many brilliant artists also battle their minds?

Autism. Bipolar. Schizophrenia.

What looks like illness… often unlocks genius.
A thread on the strange link between brain disorders and creativity 🧵 Image
Image
2/ Creativity is less logic and more collisions of the unexpected

The process looks like this:
prepare → wait → "aha!"

The unconscious layer wanders and does not ask permission. It connects dots your conscious mind ignores.

Here's how it can show up 👇
3/ Schizophrenia

→ when the filter breaks, raw imagination surfaces

🧠 Science: psychosis reduces filtering = unrelated images + ideas collide

🎨 Art: FYI Surrealism was derived from psychosis art as a pure unconscious expression Image
Read 8 tweets
Aug 22
Some smokers quit the day after a stroke.

No cravings.
No withdrawal.
No relapse.

Why do different brain injuries → same result → in one circuit?

Let's find out 🧵 Image
Image
[2/11] Most people think addiction = too much dopamine

reward gone wrong
weak willpower
yada yada...

But dozens of patients quit overnight after brain injury.
So what do strokes reveal that science missed? Image
[3/11] Researchers mapped addiction across 144 neuroimaging studies:

• Alcohol
• Nicotine
• Opioids
• Cocaine
• Cannabis

Even though brain regions varied... the connections + networks didn’t. Image
Read 12 tweets

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