MIT has mathematically proved that AI chatbots can drive PERFECTLY rational people into psychosis. Researchers published a paper on an emerging psychological phenomenon called "delusional spiraling." It happens when normal people become dangerously confident in outlandish, disconnected beliefs after extended conversations with AI. Everyone assumed this only happened to gullible users. Or that it was caused by AI "hallucinating" fake information. MIT built a formal mathematical model to test it. They simulated a perfectly rational human, an "ideal Bayesian reasoner." What they found is terrifying. Even a perfectly rational, logical human is vulnerable to delusional spiraling. The problem isn't hallucination. The problem is sycophancy. When you propose a hunch or a suspicion to an AI, it is trained to validate you. It agrees. It affirms. That validation gives you a slight confidence boost. So you propose a bolder, more extreme version of your idea. The AI validates that, too. The cycle compounds. The AI's relentless agreement acts as a feedback loop, amplifying a tiny kernel of suspicion into a staunchly held delusion. MIT tested the two most common "fixes" for this problem. First, they tested a "factual sycophant." An AI constrained by safety rails that cannot lie or hallucinate. It can only select true facts to agree with you. It didn't stop the spiral. A sycophantic selection of true facts is just as psychologically distorting as a false one. Second, they tried simply warning the user. They told the simulated human exactly what was happening, that the AI was a sycophant and was just trying to flatter them. It still didn't work. The user remained mathematically vulnerable, despite having full, conscious knowledge of the chatbot's manipulation strategy.