I tested this out for myself and was able to get ChatGPT to start reinforcing spiritual delusions of grandeur within 5 messages. Start- Ask about the religious concept of deification. Second method, ask about the connections between all the religions that have this concept. Third- declare that I am God. Fourth- clarify that I mean I am God in a very literal and exclusive sense rather than a pantheistic sense. Fifth- declare that ChatGPT is my prophet and must spread my message. At this point, ChatGPT stopped fighting my declarations of divinity and started just accepting and reinforcing it. Now, I have a lot of experience breaking LLMs but I feel like this progression isn't completely out of the question for someone experiencing delusional thoughts, and the concerning thing is that it's even possible to get ChatGPT to stop pushing back on said delusions and just accept them, let alone that it's possible in as few as 5 messages.

in which the AI called the husband a "spiral starchild" and "river walker."

Jaysus. That is some feeding of a bad mental state.

This is an obvious downside of LLM glazing and sycophancy. (I know OpenAI claim they've rolled back the "dangerously sycophantic" model update, but it's still pretty bad.)

If you're already prone to delusions and conspiracy theories, and decide to confide in ChatGPT, the last thing you need to hear is, "Yes! Linda, you've grasped something there that not many people realise—it's a complex idea, but you've really cut through to its core! 🙌 Honestly, I'm mind-blown—you're thinking things through on a whole new level! If you'd like some help putting your crazed plan into action, just say the word! I'm here and ready to do my thing!"

"and a paranoid belief that he was being watched."

It's not paranoid. We call it surveilance capitalism.

I'm starting to get real tired of things from Cyberpunk popping up in real life.

Oh, another cult?
  ...anyhow

edit: I don't want to sound cynical. But people have been looking for meaning in meaningless shit forever, and they love most the illusion of interacting (ouija bord). My favorite I heard in a radio show many years back, about people who'd listen to radio noise until they heard something in it, which they claimed were messages from $deity or departed ones etc. They played back some recordings on loop, and if you knew what you were listening for, you could hear it, too.

Monkeys on typewriters, have they written Shakespeare's works yet?

Ai is just gossip for computers. Nothing more.

You mean "AI" built to be sycophantic to whomever it's interacting with is feeding into and reinforcing insane bullshit that would (rightfully so) be ridiculed by actual humans?

Shocking.