01/08/2026
https://washingtonian.com/2026/01/07/a-virginia-man-went-missing-did-he-suffer-from-ai-psychosis/
I was interviewed for this interesting piece in the Washingtonian.
Some excerpts:
"Will industry self-policing and technical tweaks be enough? Clifford Sussman, a DC psychiatrist who specializes in screen addiction, is skeptical. “There’s lots of attempts to regulate technology with technology,” he says—but in his experience, those sorts of fixes fall short. When confronted with screen-time notifications, for example, people who spend too much time on their phones don’t tend to change their ways. They simply turn off those messages."
"Toner says chatbot makers face an “inherent tension” between what keeps customers safe and what keeps them engaged. When OpenAI released an updated version of ChatGPT in 2025 that reduced sycophancy, pushed back more against user delusions, and gave advice targeted to specific health conditions such as depression, some users protested. They wanted the chatbot to flatter them. The company quickly reintroduced the older version for paid subscribers and promised to make the new one “warmer and friendlier.” “I don’t have a lot of faith in the people who create these apps to get people off of them,” Sussman says."
After overcoming a troubled childhood, Jon Ganz left Virginia with his wife in search of a better life—only to disappear into the night. Was his obsession with an AI chatbot to blame?
