Description:
'lyssanetic' rhymes with 'cybernetic', and describes the property/tendency of LLMs to induce (metaphorical) madness in their users. effects range from things like mild addiction, anxiety, to decreased self-worth, social withdrawal, depression up to falling into conspiracy theories and complete disconnect from reality. broadly, any kind of psychological change that is directly due to LLM usage counts here.
this sometimes also gets talked about under the name "AI psychosis", but that term overly emphasizes only the upper end of what lyssanetic effects can look like, and it can give the inappropriate impression that they are an individual moral failure rather than something LLMs are capable of doing to you.
not everyone appears to be equally susceptible to it, but especially milder lyssanetic effects are incredibly common. people *do not* become mindless drones when under lyssanetic influence, but it can cause subtle shifts perception and judgement, like having something in the back of your mind that puts a finger on the scales of your decision-making. lyssanetic effects may uncover or amplify personal flaws and biases.
Questions:
are you a former or current LLM user? i would like to hear from you if you have experienced or are experciencing lyssanetic effects, and if yes, which; if you have recovered from more severe lyssanetic effects, what helped you recover?
(to anyone else: please withold any judgement you may have; this aspect of LLMs doesn't really receive enough attention, and we need to hear from those affected if we want to learn more about it, and what we might be able to do to help people out of it)