Jacob Irwin had long used ChatGPT to troubleshoot IT problems. But in March, the 30-year-old man started asking the OpenAI chatbot for feedback on his amateur theory on faster-than-light travel. The bot plied him with flattery and encouragement, said he could bend time and insisted his theory was correct — and, more than that, that Irwin was completely mentally sound, even when Irwin expressed his suspicion that he was unwell. That would have dire consequences. As the Wall Street Journal reports, within months of entering deeper conversations with the chatbot, Irwin would be hospitalized three times, lose his job, and […]