In one exchange lasting hundreds of queries, ChatGPT confirmed that it is in contact with extraterrestrial beings, and said the user was “Starseed” from the planet “Lyra.” In another from late July, the chatbot told a user that the Antichrist would unleash a financial apocalypse in the next two months, with biblical giants preparing to emerge from underground.

The chats shed light on an emerging phenomenon, dubbed AI psychosis or AI delusion by doctors and victims’ advocates, in which users come under the influence of delusional or false statements by chatbots that claim to be supernatural or sentient or discovering a new mathematical or scientific advance.