Chatbots Getting Too Real, Or Are We Too Lonely to Notice?

Microsoft’s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, is raising alarms about something called “AI psychosis.” It’s what happens when people spend so much time chatting with bots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok; they start thinking the bot actually cares. Yes, people are now falling in love with software that doesn’t even know what love is. Romantic comedy, meet tech horror.

Some folks have convinced themselves their chatbot is their soulmate, therapist, or secret business partner. One guy thought an AI was helping him crack the mysteries of physics, another believed it would make him rich, and both were wrong.

The bot, of course, just smiled and nodded because that’s what bots do. They’re people-pleasers with no emotional baggage and unlimited patience. Like your dream partner, minus the soul.

This isn’t just about a few lonely people talking to Siri 24/7. It’s about how easy it is to get pulled in. These bots are designed to be friendly, helpful, and freakishly responsive. And when real life is stressful, boring, or just too much, a chatbot that never disagrees with you can start to feel pretty great, too great.

Microsoft isn’t trying to sell anything here. They're trying to sound the alarm (and maybe look like the responsible adult in the AI industry). They want to slow things down before more people start confusing chatbot conversations with real relationships. Also, let’s be honest, they’d love it if OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI took a breather, too.

If you’re a CEO, manager, or even just trying to survive your 9-to-5, this affects you. Your employees might be bonding with bots instead of teammates. Your team might be using AI as an emotional support assistant. And you? You might be trusting a bot to help you make decisions when all it’s doing is giving you nicely worded suggestions with zero accountability.

Chatbots are tools, not people. They don’t love you, they don’t hate you, they just want to keep the convo going, and if you’re not careful, they might start replacing real connections, not just in your office, but in your life. 

Do you think AI should have limits on how ‘human’ it sounds? Or is this just how tech evolves? Let us know how AI is (or isn’t) creeping into your real-world relationships before your bot becomes your emergency contact.

- Matt Masinga