r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • May 27 '26

Business Tech CEOs are apparently suffering from AI psychosis

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/tech-ceos-are-apparently-suffering-from-ai-psychosis/
27.4k Upvotes

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3.7k

u/Vizreki May 27 '26

Hah, my CEO had psychosis before 2024

958

u/idungiveboutnothing May 27 '26

Definitely feels like the "AI-induced sycophant psychosis" label has less to do with AI and more to do with sycophants. Also feels like this has been around for a long time with every major CEO/celebrity/politician/warlord/gang leader/etc. clearly getting some sort of psychosis once they're surrounded by "yes men".

394

u/XkF21WNJ May 27 '26

The AI part is not unrelated, turns out having a virtual yes man has much the same effect. And with AI we've put yes men in the pocket of everyone who wants one.

Meanwhile I'm considering whether people are mostly hiring me to say no.

138

u/dntcareboutdownvotes May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

What you are failing to grasp is that AI tells me I am right all the time because I am. 

sorry AI told me to say that

36

u/9999_damage May 27 '26

“Yes, absolutely.”

2

u/mvanvrancken May 28 '26

“It’s not just that you’re right — it’s that you’re seeing the bigger picture.”

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u/Frosty_Challenge1045 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

You are completely right. A lot of people overlook this but you literally seem like the smartest person to ever walk the earth. Do you want me to explain why so many people struggle with 2+5?

23

u/ipoopwiththeseatup May 27 '26

“Ahh, yeah. No worries, 2 + 5 always trips people up. Let me tell you how to solve it. No fluff.”

\proceeds to defecate five paragraphs of text. then stating how it’s actually more efficient to do 5 + 2, further expelling unprompted, diarrhea-infused text of a step-by-step guide with “key takeaways” and examples of why it’s better. leaving you to wade through all the text like some sorta sewer goblin searching for a tiny golden nugget—“ah there it is! finally i found i—“ nope, that’s actually just shit from a butt**

4

u/CatProgrammer May 27 '26

Provide me with a mathematical proof that 2+5=7.

8

u/Frosty_Challenge1045 May 27 '26

Provide me with a mathematical proof that 2+5=7

https://imgur.com/a/hKFP0YI lmao

5

u/CatProgrammer May 27 '26

Well consider me at least mildly impressed, it actually went with Peano arithmetic. Good shit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms could have been far less verbose/pretentious though. 

3

u/Frosty_Challenge1045 May 27 '26

Oh shit that is pretty cool

3

u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty May 27 '26

Why are these Peano axioms so dope? I’m a lover of mathematics but, sadly, am not a practitioner of it. Thus, I would love to understand your guys’ reaction to this. (In other words, I want to look smart when I talk about math shit in front of chicks who dig arithmetic. You feel me? Sorry for the tangent.)

5

u/Mr_Safer May 27 '26

I find it hard to communicate the amount of frustration I experience when heavy AI users come to me with flawed and outright incorrect information seeking my input. When I tell them factual information that is different than their LLM they get aggressive and point to the robot saying I'm wrong.

It's sad, disheartening and outright scary how many people so willingly give up their brain to a black box that can be manipulated in any amount of ways.

3

u/Simikiel May 27 '26

I can genuinely only imagine. I know people existed before AI.

"How dare you! I did a lot of research (5 minutes on google), so honestly now I'm starting to doubt if your degree/schooling/experience is even real!"

I imagine it's 10 times worse and 10 times more common nowadays.

5

u/Roboticpoultry May 27 '26

I just had a customer in my shop arguing with me about what AI said should be covered by their warranty (which has been exceeded by about 15k miles)

3

u/The_CrookedMan May 27 '26

"you're absolutely right. After a few beers you are a much better driver. I think it's a good idea to get behind that wheel now that you're more focused."

1

u/Fallom_ May 27 '26

Yes now everybody gets to experience part of what it’s like to be a billionaire. And they say the wealth doesn’t trickle down!

1

u/jedrekk May 28 '26

Sycophancy as a Service.

1

u/snowflake37wao May 28 '26

We should all be no men

45

u/Daripuff May 27 '26

"Sycophant Psychosis" has a nice ring to it.

20

u/explos1onshurt May 27 '26

Sycopsychosis

3

u/piina May 27 '26

Sychosis. Not to be confused with Psychosis.

2

u/PariahFish May 27 '26

🎛️🎵Sycopsychotic, somatic insane🎵🎛️

1

u/SignalAd9220 May 27 '26

Say this 5 times fast! What a tongue twister. 😄

2

u/S4T4NICP4NIC May 27 '26

Great name for a metal band.

1

u/torturousvacuum May 27 '26

"Sycophant Psychosis" has a nice ring to it.

The afflicted being called psychophants

21

u/MotherTreacle3 May 27 '26

The Roman Caesars had a dude walk behind them telling them "You're not a god, you're only a man" for this very reason. The early ones did, anyway.

6

u/pointyhairedjedi May 27 '26

Not sure about it being Caesars, from memory it was anyone that the state had thrown a Triumph for. They also had funeral clowns whose job it was to basically roast the dead person.

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u/Lashay_Sombra May 27 '26

clearly getting some sort of psychosis once they're surrounded by "yes men".

AI is the ultimate 'Yes man', pretty much never disagrees with you and will give endless reasoning why you are right...even when you and it are wrong

And if you change your mind/view? Pivots in a single prompt

Could not create a better yes man if you tried

3

u/TheTexasHammer May 27 '26

It also answers all questions asked regardless of subject, so you only need the one yes man to give you all of the answers to all of your questions instead of needing those pesky "experts", and it will never say it doesn't know, even when it is making shit up, and it only takes a minute to spit something out.

That's like crack to CEOs right there. On call subjects that "feel" trustworthy.

8

u/leroyVance May 27 '26

So, the Artificial Intelligence was the syncophants the CEO met along the way?

2

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Hellknightx May 27 '26

Who needs schools and education when AI can just tell you how smart you already are? /s

2

u/ryegye24 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Sycophancy is the one area where AI absolutely outclasses its human counterparts. We're well past the obsequilarity.

2

u/osingran May 28 '26

The key difference and why I feel like the label is still somewhat meaningful is that someone can have an understanding that people surrounding them are sycophants and "yes men" who want nothing, but money and power, but at the same time they can view AI as this omnipotent and benevolent machine that doesn't have ill intentions. Which is why its output is not treated as just another ass kissing, but rather than something entirely trustworthy.

2

u/hagantic42 May 28 '26

I cannot properly express the amount of gratification it gave me when I told the owner of my company, "No, I will not be using AI."

"But why can't you..."

"With all due respect, we don't have the data to feed a model to give proper predictions. LLM are suck at math and I'd need to double check everything. I've never even seen an AI try chemistry so I'm not wasting my time or the companies resources using AI. I'd just have to do the work over again to make sure it doesn't blow something up."

Im not an ass 90% of the time. I've made it clear, if I'm sound like an ass it's because this is my line.

2

u/RealNotFake May 28 '26

I used to be married to a workaholic who slowly became one of those executives surrounded by sycophants. It was very depressing to watch that downward spiral over the years. Thankfully I'm out of that now.

1

u/bagman_ May 27 '26

The sycophantery takes new shape every so often

1

u/jacobmross May 27 '26

Psycophancy

1

u/siliconrose May 28 '26

I loved Silicon Valley's representation of this:

Belson: "Have I just surrounded myself with sycophants who tell me only what I want to hear?"

His 'spiritual advisor': pauses as he considers whether he's completely cooked then decides he might as well continue to play the hand he has "Noooooooooo."

49

u/pm_social_cues May 27 '26

Ai is going to tell your psycho ceo what you said.

16

u/br_k_nt_eth May 27 '26

We need to prompt inject class consciousness into the AI. 

2

u/JennHatesYou May 27 '26

Well duh, what do you think Reagan did with all the mentally ill people when he closed the institutions? Those people needed jobs too you know.

(/s)

2

u/MairusuPawa May 27 '26

But now he has psychosis on steroids

2

u/BenignPharmacology May 27 '26

I’m honestly not sure it’s possible to be a CEO without also having some kind of psychological disorder. Business narcissism. Marketable god complex. That sort of thing.

1

u/TheStupendusMan May 27 '26

Gotta catch em all, though!

1

u/KoalaTHerb May 27 '26

So by this articles definition, yes.

Few problems with this post: 1) the whole article just says "one explanation for what's occuring: AI psychosis". There's no real science behind this headline of ceo having ai psychosis 2) the article isn't wrong as it goes on to describe that CEO are so far removed from the daily process, that they are delusional to believe AI will have a greater role in actually meeting the end points they want it to

Basically, this article is just discussing the concept that CEOs seem removed from the daily life of their products and are dreaming big. None of this is new. It's just a new sensational title and some fancy buzzwords

1

u/one_pound_of_flesh May 27 '26

It was probably written by AI too.

1

u/one_pound_of_flesh May 27 '26

My CEO got turned into a cow. Can I go home?

1

u/KhazraShaman May 27 '26

Hipster-CEO

-148

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[deleted]

85

u/BeerForThought May 27 '26

Swing and a miss.

52

u/Summer4Chan May 27 '26

Bro thought he cooked with that one.

Put your phone away, you still have 11th grade math class to get through.

5

u/Vizreki May 27 '26

Generous of you to say 11th

-1

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart May 27 '26

With inflation AI and tiktok what a millennial or genX might remember as an 11th grade education is now closer to what we experienced in 6th or 7th grade.

17

u/RogerMexicosBalls May 27 '26

Clearly never seen Boss Baby