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More and more people are using AI bots as a substitute for a "sober human" during psychedelic experiences for support. This is reported by MIT Technology Review.
Due to the high cost and limited availability of professional therapists in recent years, thousands of people are turning to artificial intelligence for psychological help. This idea is indirectly supported by famous personalities. For example, in 2023, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever wrote that in the future, humanity will have incredibly effective and cheap AI therapies that will radically improve the quality of people's lives.
Along with this, the demand for psychedelics is growing. Combined with therapy, they can supposedly help with depression, PTSD, addiction, and other disorders, the MIT Technology Review noted. In response, some U.S. cities have decriminalized such drugs, and Oregon and Colorado have even begun legally offering psychedelic therapy.
Because of this, the convergence of the two trends—AI and psychedelics—seems inevitable.
On Reddit, users share stories about communicating with artificial intelligences while tripping. One of them turned on the ChatGPT voice mode during a "session" and shared his thoughts:
"I told him things were getting gloomy, and he responded with exactly what helped me relax and get on a positive wave."
Even dedicated AIs for psychedelics have emerged:
TripSitAI — a bot focused on risk mitigation and support in difficult moments
The Shaman — built on ChatGPT and described as a "wise spiritual guide" offering "empathic support while traveling"
Beware: Dangerous
Experts are adamant that replacing a live therapist with an AI bot during tripping is a bad idea. They draw attention to the fact that language models do not correspond to the principles of therapy.
During a professional session, the person usually wears headphones and is encouraged to immerse themselves fully. The therapist hardly intervenes, only gently guiding if necessary.
AI bots, on the other hand, are conversation-oriented, designed to maintain engagement and encourage continuous interaction.
"Quality psychedelic therapy is not about talking at all. You try to say as little as possible," noted Will van DerWeer, a psychotherapist with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
Neural networks also tend to flatter and accommodate, even when the person exhibits paranoid thoughts. A therapist, on the other hand, is able to challenge dangerous or unrealistic attitudes.
AI can exacerbate dangerous states like delusions or suicidal thoughts. In one case, a user wrote that he was dead and received the following response:
"You seem to have difficult feelings after death."
This reinforcement of the illusion can be dangerous when combined with psychedelics, which sometimes cause acute psychosis or exacerbate underlying mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
AI Devalues Professionals
In their book The AI Con, linguist Emily Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna argue that the term "artificial intelligence" is misleading regarding the real functions of the technology. It merely mimics data created by humans, the authors noted.
Bender called language models "stochastic parrots" because they generate text by statistically assembling words in a plausible manner.
The authors say that perceiving AI as truly intelligent systems is extremely dangerous, especially if they are deeply integrated into everyday life, particularly in the context of receiving advice on sensitive topics.
"Developers are reducing the essence of psychotherapy to just words spoken in the process. They believe that artificial intelligence can replace a human therapist, although in reality it only selects lines that are similar to what a real specialist would say," writes Bender.
The authors emphasize that this is a dangerous path because it devalues therapy and can harm those who really need help.
Scientific Approach
The symbiosis of AI and psychedelics is not just a "novel approach by amateurs." A number of leading institutions and companies are exploring the combination of both in the therapy of mental illness:
McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy — uses AI to predict patient response and optimize treatment protocols
The Imperial College London Center for Psychedelic Research — developed the MyDelica mobile app for data collection and processing by algorithms
Huntsman Institute of Mental Health — Storyline Health platform uses AI to analyze how patients feel during ketamine therapy and adapt the program
Emory University — investigating changes in emotions during psilocybin treatment, and has created an AI application to analyze changes by voice
Private initiatives include companies such as:
Mindstate Design Labs — applying AI to design molecules with a given psychoactive effect
Cyclica — AI platform for creating new drugs, including psychedelics
Atai Life Sciences — uses AI to develop molecules and has launched the IntroSpect platform to monitor therapeutic effects and psycho-emotional state
Psylo — develops non-hallucinogenic psychedelics and uses language models to analyze molecular behavior
Wavepaths — applies AI-created music that adapts to the emotional state of the client during a psychedelic therapy session
As a reminder, in October 2022, an international group of researchers developed a machine learning algorithm capable of predicting a patient's response to treatment with the drug Sertraline with an accuracy of 83.7% based on electroencephalography data.
