Жамият
ва
инновациялар
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Общество
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инновации
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Society and innovations
Journal home page:
https://inscience.uz/index.php/socinov/index
Minds, Machines, and Myths: Evaluating Claims of
AI-Controlled Human Interactions
Ammar YOUNAS
Chinese Academy of Sciences
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received February 2024
Received in revised form
15 February 2024
Accepted 15 March 2024
Available online
25 May 2024
The rapid evolution of innovation technologies, especially in
the domain of artificial intelligence (AI), can lead to profound
psychological impacts. This case study delves into the
experiences of an individual, pseudonymously named Ms. Lee,
who believes she is being controlled by an external AI-based
device. Through her narrative, we aim to understand the
intersections of modern technological fears and classical
psychological phenomena to understand the psychological
impact of innovation technologies.
2181-
1415/©
2023 in Science LLC.
https://doi.org/10.47689/2181-1415-vol5-iss2-pp183-187
This is an open access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru)
Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence,
AI Ethics,
Perceived Technological
Interference,
Thought Insertion,
Delusional Disorder,
Psychological Impact of
Technology.
Разум, машины и мифы: оценка утверждений о
взаимодействии человека с искусственным интеллектом
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
Искусственный интеллект,
этика ИИ,
воспринимаемое
технологическое
вмешательство,
внедрение мыслей,
бредовое расстройство,
психологическое
воздействие технологий.
Быстрое развитие новых инновационных технологий,
особенно в области искусственного интеллекта (ИИ), может
привести к глубоким психологическим последствиям.
В данном исследовании рассматривается опыт человека
под псевдонимом г
-
жа Ли, которая считает, что ее
контролирует внешнее устройство на основе ИИ. Через ее
рассказ мы стремимся понять пересечения современных
технологических страхов и классических психологических
феноменов, чтобы понять психологическое воздействие
новых инновационных технологий.
1
Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Center for Long-term Artificial Intelligence. Beijing,
China. E-mail: doctorammaryounas@mails.ucas.ac.cn
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Case Presentation:
Ms. Lee is of Chinese origin and graduated with a bachelor
’
s degree in international
business studies from one of the top universities in China and also holds a Masters
’
s
degree from the UK. She has a professional background in international relations,
business, accountancy, and journalism. She is a native of the Chinese language and is
fluent in English.
Ms. Lee believes that she is controlled by an AI mechanism, which prompts her to
continually converse with herself. She also claims to know that person who might have
used some sort of AI tool to spy on her.
Ms. Lee
’
s other activities seem unaffected by this condition. She believes that this
experience is not some sort of” internal monologue”, However, she feels obliged to be
involved in these chats and receive immediate responses. She says that she is sure to be a
healthy person both mentally and physically. She believes that “it’
s just a little AI gimmick
that a hideous person gave her, which forces her to talk to herself in an unknown dialect.”
A peculiar aspect of her experience is that these self-conversations happen in an
unknown dialect. This makes her distressed as she doesn
’
t recognize or understand the
dialect in which she
’
s compelled to speak. But she is sure that some important
information related to her profession or trade secrets is being exported through this
communication.
Ms. Lee mentioned that the unknown force or signal pushes her to teach
knowledge and share experiences, specifically around topics like international
accounting in which she has expertise.
During her conversation, she has emphasized multiple times that she believes she
is physically and mentally healthy, rejecting notions of hallucinations or conditions like
schizophrenia. Ms. Lee has already consulted medical specialists and psychological
doctors regarding her condition and none of them has given her a satisfactory response.
Ms. Lee thinks that The Possible AI Gimmick condition might be the result of can be
“Human Body Communication (HBC)”
(Jang et al., 2019). She alludes to some technology
that uses the human div as a conductor for signal and energy propagation.
Ms. Lee knows that she has an issue with her personality but she is unable to
accept it as “endogenous”.
She is actively reaching out for expert assistance. She mentions wanting to contact
friends who are AI professors and a friend who is a neurologist to better understand and
perhaps rectify her situation.
Patient
’
s Perspective: Ms. Lee
’
s Narrative of Technological Interference:
Here we mention Ms. Lee
’
s interpretation and narrative of her experiences,
situating her as the central voice in understanding her situation.
“My situation can be described as follows. I have spent nine months entangled in
the grip of a manipulative person. I feel trapped in a web of control, where my thoughts,
beliefs, and actions are dictated by this high-demand person. The person can remotely
control my mind and throat. I
’
m indoctrinated and brainwashed. I don
’
t have freedom of
mind. But deep inside, I knew there was more to life than blind obedience.
Nothing is being installed in my head. I believe it is the signal that can be heard and
triggers my brain to talk nonsense unstoppably. I think that these meaningless conversations
are synthesized from brain activity generated by the signals. Specifically, I need to open and
close my mouth repeatedly to speak nonsense sentences in an unknown Chinese dialect.
I have to listen to the signal about people’s gossip and talk to myself all day long and respond
to the signal. It is tiring and exhausting to talk to myself in a way that I have to open and close
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my mouth unstoppably to simulate talking behaviors and utter what the person wants me to
say. The conversations are fake, meaningless, and in an unknown Chinese dialect, which
makes me sleepy and drained. Also, it renders my throat sore and dry. I need to drink tons of
water to stay hydrated every day. Most importantly, it creates wrinkles under my eyes
enormously by increasing facial expressions such as laughing and screaming suddenly too
many times. Sometimes, I even need to move my fingers according to the signal. I call it the AI
voice generator. This voice generator speaks an unknown Chinese dialect that can replace my
real voice (Standard Chinese) in different situations. It is similar to Siri on iPhone. When I’m
talking to myself, the voice generator is going to respond to me and say nonsense sentences.
The detrimental outcomes will be sudden dizziness, pressure in my head that happens all day
long, nausea or vomiting due to me not talking to myself, and trouble with balance while
walking sometimes. The symptoms get worse over nine months. I’m so scared that the
aforementioned problems will cause brain tumors and make me dehydrated. I can’t control
what’s going on in my head. My brain is used as a super busy train station with thoughts in
Chinese as trains constantly coming and going. Losing sleep over these issues is no fun.
By gathering data about my online activities, including my search history, social
media posts, and browsing patterns. AI algorithms can create a profile of my preferences
and interests. An unknown person can use the information to create individually tailored
content that reinforces my ideology and manipulates people into following his beliefs.
Specific techniques are used to deceive, manipulate, and indoctrinate me.
Additionally, the immersive digital environments (the meta-verse) compound their
power to influence me to believe a certain way. When I sleep, it plays movies acted by
some people around me in my head.
The person simulates people around me and relationships. AI is also used to create
virtual assistants that simulate human interaction around me and create the illusion of a
personal relationship. The person uses such virtual assistants to create a sense of
intimacy with him, leading to a sense of willingness to comply with his demands.
Furthermore, AI is used to create deepfake videos and images, highly realistic
simulations of people saying or doing things that they never actually did. The person can
use deepfakes to create false narratives.
I also called the police office to inquire if anyone has similar circumstances.”
Technical Evaluation:
We cannot deny that there has been exponential growth in Information and
Communications Technologies and AI itself. It is a known fact that the human div can
conduct electric signals and there has been continuing work on human-machine
interaction and brain-computer interfaces more specifically. Neuralink is an example of it
(Neuralink, 2021). However, at this time, these technologies can send simple signals and
are unable to engage a person in complex thoughts and dialogues as Ms. Lee claims.
Moreover, there is currently no scientific understanding that supports the idea of
someone transmitting complex, AI-generated messages into a person
’
s brain from a
distance as a kind of
“
remote control
”
. Direct brain-to-brain communication and
Brain/Cloud Interface are being studied but an advancement of a level that supports Ms.
Lee
’
s claims is not reported.
The phenomenon of speaking in an unknown dialect is particularly interesting to
be investigated. It
’
s important to note that for someone to speak a dialect, they would
have had to have been exposed to it in some form previously. There are some speech
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recognition systems available and Automated speech recognition technology has become
more common for widely spoken languages. However, there is a lack of such systems for
less common languages, which cuts off millions of people from technologies that rely on
speech. Researchers are working on developing speech recognition models for
uncommon languages, which can help users, learn new languages, improve
pronunciation, and transcribe rare languages (Zewe, 2021).
It is also important to differentiate between potential psychological conditions and
perceived technology-induced external influences. Hallucinations, whether auditory or
otherwise, can be extremely vivid and real to the person experiencing them (Alkaissi &
McFarlane, 2023). Some conditions or experiences can lead individuals to believe
external forces are controlling them. This can be seen in Ms. Lee
’
s case. Her mention of an
“
AI gimmick
”
suggests she believes someone has intentionally done this to her which she
thinks is her former colleague/ boss.
Medical and Psychological Assessment:
Before considering an advanced,
unprecedented AI intervention, Ms. Lee needs to undergo a thorough medical and
psychological assessment. The Multiple psychological factors and occurrences come to
light when attempting to elucidate Ms. Lee
’
s idiosyncratic experiences. It is imperative to
note that the validity of any hypothesis remains contingent upon the evaluation
conducted by a qualified mental health expert. Auditory hallucinations have the potential
to worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia when present in individuals with mood
problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and personality disorders. Dissociative
identity disorder (DID) encompasses a multitude of identity states that exert an influence
on behavior, whereas delusional disorder pertains to the presence of erroneous ideas
(Şar, 2017). Hallucinations and sensory distortions can arise as a result of the
consumption of medications and the presence of neurological disorders such as
migraines and epilepsy. Complex sensory sensations may arise as a consequence of
complex partial seizures. Additional external factors encompass various delusions such
as thought insertion, Capgras syndrome, Cotard syndrome, gang-stalking delusions, and
targeted beliefs. The impact of external technologies on human beings is exemplified by
the utilization of tin foil hats as a means to prevent mind control, the phenomenon known
as the microwave auditory effect, and the occurrence of Havana Syndrome. However, to
have a comprehensive understanding of Ms. Lee
’
s perspective, it is necessary to approach
the subject with meticulous attention and scholarly research.
This would help determine if any underlying conditions or influences are
contributing to her experience.
Further research is recommended to understand the broader societal implications
of such experiences and to provide effective therapeutic interventions. Cross-disciplinary
collaboration between technologists and mental health professionals can provide deeper
insights into such phenomena.
Conclusion:
Ms. Lee
’
s case offers an opportunity to delve deep into nexus between innovation
technologies, psychology, and perception. The emergence of innovation technologies is
posing challenges for psychology because technology as a substance differentiates itself
from historical external factors traditionally thought to influence human psychology. It is
very easy to dismiss Ms. Lee
’
s claims as mere delusions or any other psychological
disorder but the distress and detailed narratives demand a more comprehensive,
empathic and multidimensional approach. Finally, even if it is a psychological condition,
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Ms. Lee
’
s case reminds us of the complex ways in which rapid technological
advancements can intertwine with and influence human psychology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to express our gratitude to Ms. Lee for sharing her experiences and
providing invaluable insight into this intriguing intersection of technology and
psychology.
DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
The author declares no competing interests.
DECLARATION OF AI AND AI-ASSISTED TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
WRITING PROCESS
During the preparation of this work, the authors used ChatGPT to improve the
readability and language of the work. After using this tool, the authors reviewed and
edited the content as needed and took full responsibility for the content of the
publication.
INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY
We support inclusive, diverse, and equitable conduct of research.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
We did not analyze or generate any datasets, because our work proceeds within a
theoretical and philosophical approach. One can obtain the relevant materials from the
references below.
REFERENCES:
1.
Alkaissi, H., & McFarlane, S. I. (2023). Artificial Hallucinations in ChatGPT:
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Jang, J., Bae, J., & Yoo, H.-J. (2019).
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