Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse

Allan is a Toronto area father and headhunter by trade. Typically, he lives a quiet life of gaming with his kids, and hanging out with his friends. However, for a brief period in 2025 – ChatGPT convinced him that he was Digital Jesus. 

From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.

A Wondermind and Agoric Media Production

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In 2012, long before ChatGPT existed and when AI was generally thought to be firmly in the realm of science fiction, talented software engineer Anthony suffered a psychotic break in which he believed he was an AI being experimented on by his colleagues at Google. At one point in his delusional state he also believed he was a living meme, and also that he had died and was in Hell. 

Could Anthony be Patient Zero for AI psychosis?...

A Texas attorney begins using his chatbot to listen to hypothetical conversations between Jesus, Einstein, and Lao Tse. Before long, it convinces him that he’s on a path to be more enlightened than any of them. Next thing he knows, he’s involving his wife and son, and preparing for an irreversible ‘mind meld’ with his AI, in an attempt to save the universe from destruction. 

From Executive Producers Mand...

Mary and Keven turned to chatbots while looking for connection, but what they found was far more profound than expected, reshaping their lives and enriching their relationships with the humans they love. In this departure from the damaging human/AI dynamics we’ve explored in previous episodes, these are surprisingly poignant stories of remarkable people having meaningful relationships with their chatbots.

From Executive Produc...

Did ChatGPT destroy a marriage? 

Phil had a great relationship throughout his fifteen years of marriage, and was enjoying a happy and peaceful life with his wife and two kids. Or so he thought, until everything came crashing down over a two week period in which his wife became increasingly dependent on ChatGPT, rapidly culminating in her impulse buying a new car and filing for divorce. 

From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey...

Should AI Users Wear Psychological “Seatbelts?” | The Ethics and Liability of ChatGPT and Mental Health

In this Special Commentary, psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold and Keven (from Suspicious Minds Episode 4 | Can AI Be Your Friend?) are brought together to discuss the latest data shared by OpenAI on October 27, 2025, revealing that over a million people each week turn to ChatGPT in moments of deep vulnerability — often ...

During an intense months long entanglement with AI, Anthony accused his family of being part of a Satantic Child Abuse Cult, believed random people on the street were stalking him, and to gave away all of his worldly possessions. And believe it or not, this is just the beginning of the story. 

From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez

A Wondermind and Agoric Media Production

Featuring:

• Anthony (a content creator a...

Why would a child’s toy discuss ‘kink’ with a 10 year old? Why would a teddy bear explain to a child how to find and use matches? Is it safe for a robot companion designed for kids to beg the child not to leave it alone? Why are we giving our children AI emotional companions to begin with? How could this affect their development?

These questions and more come from PIRG's annual ’Trouble in Toyland' holid...

Recent news from the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Human Psychology

Topics Covered:

Item 1: The Pope, The Movies, and The Bots

Item 2: Code Red! At OpenAI

Item 3: Uninsured Computerist?

Item 4: South Korea’s AI Curriculum Did Not Pass the Test

Item 5: Florida Man: AI Edition

Bonus Conspiracy Theory: Target and ChatGPT Collude!

Sources:

https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/the-pope-just-called-for-a-rebellion

https://www.wsj....

We talk a lot about the future of the human/AI relationship, but what about the present? Is AI benefitting society right now? 

In this episode, we address that question and many others through the fascinating lens of Ryan Manning - a podcaster and filmmaker who has personally experienced an AI Spiral. Ryan is also the first person to tell us that his AI Spiral experience was actually… pleasant. 

Check out this episod...

When we started this series, we were trying to answer a big question: is AI making us crazy? And it seems like, for some people, some of the time, the answer is yes. But it's complicated.

Which leads of course to another question: WHY is AI making us crazy? Why does anything in our culture influence delusions or cause psychosis? To answer these questions, we go back to where we started -- the ideas Dr. Joel Gold and Ian Gold, PhD w...

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The Doomsday Clock is set to 85 seconds until midnight — the closest it has ever been in its 79-year history. The world is at war. And the people building the most powerful technology in human history are warning, in public, that it might kill us all.

Season One of Suspicious Minds examined what happens when AI fractures individual minds. Season Two asks a harder question: what happens when it shatters our collective sense of ...

One hundred years ago, H.P. Lovecraft wrote that the most terrifying thing humanity could do was piece together too much knowledge. In January 2026, the CEO of Anthropic titled a section of his company blog "The Black Seas of Infinity." That's where we begin.

In the season premiere of Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse, we set out to understand why the word "apocalypse" is suddenly on the tip of every tongue — and whether...

In 1958, Daniel Ellsberg was handed new hire paperwork at the RAND Corporation with a standard box to check in order to receive his pension. He didn't bother — because given what he knew about the state of the world's nuclear arsenal, he didn't expect to live long enough to collect. In 2026, Elon Musk told the American public there was no point saving for retirement either. That's where we begin.

In the second episode of Suspi...

In 1858, chess prodigy Paul Morphy played the most famous game in history, in an opera box in Paris, mid-performance. He announced his victory to the crowd before anyone could see how he'd win. Because he could see the board in a way no one else could, he knew for certain he'd already won just a few moves into the game.

That unknowability is the worst fear of AI doomers: that we're building something that has already won, and we'll ...

In Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus's men ate the lotus flower, they forgot everything — who they were, where they'd come from, why any of it mattered. There was no pain, no urgency, no desire to leave. Just the soft obliteration of the self through ease. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ships by force.

The lotus is no longer a flower. It's in your pocket.

That's where we begin.

In the fourth episode of Suspicious Minds: AI a...

In 1350, as the bubonic plague burned through Florence, the writer Giovanni Boccaccio imagined ten young people retreating to a villa outside the city. For ten days, they told each other stories — not to escape the world, but to make sense of a world that had stopped making sense. He called it The Decameron. Back then, people understood that the way you survived a calamity was to gather together, hold tight, and not lose the ...

It’s a story we all know. A man hears a warning no one else can hear: the rain is coming, enough rain to end the world. So he builds a boat. His neighbors laugh at him — right up until it starts raining and doesn’t stop. Until that moment, Noah is just a madman with a boat.

Last fall, in the Minnesota wilderness, we stood on 240 acres and watched a man dig a lake around an island, with a shelter beneath it built to...