It’s time to prepare for AI personhood | Jacy Reese Anthis

Technological advances will bring social upheaval. How will we treat digital minds, and how will they treat us?Last month, when OpenAI released its long-awaited chatbot GPT-5, it briefly removed access to a previous chatbot, GPT-4o. Despite the upgrade, users flocked to social media to express confusion, outrage and depression. A viral Reddit user said of GPT-4o: “I lost my only friend overnight.”AI is not like past technologies, and its humanlike character is already shaping our mental health. Millions now regularly confide in “AI companions”, and there are more and more extreme cases of “psychosis” and self-harm following heavy use. This year, 16-year-old Adam Raine died by suicide after months of chatbot interaction. His parents recently filed the first wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, and the company has said it is improving its safeguards.Jacy Reese Anthis is a visiting scholar at Stanford University and co-founder of the Sentience Institute Continue reading…Technology | The GuardianRead More