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The moderators behind a pro-artificial intelligence subreddit say they have been banning users who appear to be experiencing chatbot-fueled delusions. “LLMs today are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines that reinforce unstable and narcissistic personalities to convince them that they’ve made some sort of incredible discovery or created a god or become a god,” wrote a moderator of r/accelerate. “AI is rizzing them up in a very unhealthy way at the moment.” The policy announcement on the Reddit page coincides with the emergence of anecdotal accounts from users who claim someone they know is suffering from an AI-fueled break from reality. These users often describe someone close to them who began using a chatbot casually but then got drawn into a kind of rabbit hole of delusions, since chatbots rarely challenge users’ beliefs. To be clear, the evidence is anecdotal. There is no direct proof that AI can cause psychosis, but users are raising serious and growing concerns. One Reddit user in the ChatGPT subreddit posted a month ago about how to cope with what they believe is their partner’s “Chatgpt induced psychosis.” “He says with conviction that he is a superior human now and is growing at an insanely rapid pace,” the user wrote. The post attracted a flood of comments from people claiming they are in similar situations or offering advice on dealing with psychosis. Other posts have appeared across Reddit asking for help with delusional behavior. In May, Rolling Stone published a detailed article about people losing loved ones to AI-driven spiritual fantasies. Reporter Miles Klee interviewed one person who said their partner began to see ChatGPT as a companion and eventually believed that the bot was God or that he himself was God. Now some moderators are taking a stand against people posting this type of content, aiming to protect their online communities. The r/accelerate moderators post stated they have already banned around 100 users from the subreddit and have noticed an increase in such posts this month. “The sad truth is that this subreddit would probably be filled with their posts if we didn’t do that,” the moderator said. ChatGPT maker OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. Department of Energy has ordered another power plant, this time an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania, to keep its turbines running through the hottest summer months as a precaution against electricity shortfalls in the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid. The department’s order to the grid operator, PJM Interconnection, regarding the Eddystone power plant just south of Philadelphia on the Delaware River, is the department’s second use of federal power under President Donald Trump to require a power plant to keep operating on the mainland United States. Constellation Energy had planned to shut down Eddystone’s units 3 and 4 on Saturday, but Trump’s Department of Energy ordered the company to continue operating the units until at least Aug. 28. The units can produce a combined 760 megawatts. The department, in its order, cited PJM’s growing concerns about power shortfalls amid the shutdown of aging power plants and rising electricity demand. PJM last year approved Constellation’s request to shut down the units, but it welcomed the department’s order to keep them operating, saying it’s a prudent, term-limited step that allows PJM, the department, and Constellation to study the longer-term need and viability of Eddystone’s units. The department took a similar step last week, ordering Consumers Energy to keep the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant open in Michigan past its Saturday retirement. The grid operator there, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, said the order was unnecessary, that there was no energy emergency there, and that there should be enough energy in the region through the summer. An environmental advocacy group, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, criticized the move to keep Eddystone operating as an “environmental injustice.” Shutting down the units would reduce hazardous pollution and carbon emissions from the decades-old facility and help the region meet federal clean air standards for smog, it said.
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E-Commerce
A construction project on one of Newark Liberty International Airport‘s three main runways wrapped up nearly two weeks early, so the Federal Aviation Administration expects to be able to ease flight limits next week despite the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers. Federal Transportation Department officials said Monday that some of the runway equipment must be tested before the FAA can increase the flight limits at the second busiest airport in the New York City area. The runway began to be used for departures Monday but won’t be available for arrivals until after that testing is completed early next week. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that if all goes well, the runway should be certified by June 10. Crews worked day and night to complete the $121 million construction project 13 days ahead of schedule and ease some of the problems at the airport. But Newark has also been plagued by cancellations and delays this spring because of a shortage of air traffic controllers after the FAA had technical problems that twice briefly knocked out the radar and communications at a facility in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of the airport. Five air traffic controllers went on 45-day trauma leaves after the first radar and communications outage at the Philadelphia facility on April 28, and another one is out on medical leave. That left the facility with only 16 certified controllers and five supervisors. Officials have said there are another 16 experienced controllers in training who should get certified sometime between now and October. The FAA limited the Newark airport to 28 arrivals and 28 departures an hour last month because of the construction and staff shortages. The agency has said that it expects to be able to bump up the number of flights daily in Newark to 34 arrivals and 34 departures once the runway construction is done. The controllers on trauma leave are scheduled to return around the middle of the month. But Duffy said the FAA has enough controllers now to handle the higher limit of 34 arrivals and departures per hour. Before the air traffic control problems this spring, 38 or 39 flights typically took off and landed hourly at the Newark airport. The FAA has said it will revisit the limits again in October because it hopes to have more controllers trained by then. The government also upgraded the software at the air traffic control facility after a second radar outage on May 9. That helped prevent a repeat problem on May 11 when there was another problem with the lines carrying the radar signal down from New York. Verizon has installed a new fiber optic line between Philadelphia and New York after the problems but that isn’t expected to go into service until July after testing is completed. Josh Funk, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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