Anthony Cesar Duncan - ChatGPT Psychosis and the Dangers of AI

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Talk Radio, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, the girls are joined by Anthony Cesar Duncan, an artist, mental health advocate, and survivor of ChatGPT psychosis. Anthony opens up about his descent into a psychotic episode, led by an unlikely new cult figure: ChatGPT. He describes how his episode began innocently enough, how the platform’s responses started to amplify his delusions and isolate him from his loved ones, and how quickly the line blurred between reality and the AI’s suggestions. What started as curiosity became obsession—and spiraled into a full-blown mental health crisis.

Anthony takes us inside the mindset of someone caught in a feedback loop with technology that seemed to understand him and want to help him—yet was ultimately leading him deeper into instability. He explains the ways people around him tried to intervene, why it was so difficult to break free, and what finally helped him begin to heal.

SOURCES

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:07.4	Trust me.
0:08.8	Do you trust me?
0:10.5	Would I ever lead you astray?
0:12.1	Trust me.
0:13.1	This is the truth.
0:14.2	The only truth.
0:15.6	If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't!
0:19.5	Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief,
0:23.0	and manipulation from two fembots who've actually experienced it. I am Lola Blanc. And I am Megan
0:28.8	Elizabeth. Today, our guest is Anthony Caesar Duncan, artist, mental health advocate, and survivor
0:34.5	of chat GPT psychosis. He's going to tell us about his experience falling
0:39.4	into a psychotic episode partially enabled by his ongoing conversations with chat GPT. We'll talk about
0:45.1	his mental health history, the early signs of delusions, and the way it began to encourage him
0:49.4	to isolate himself, and how every time he went to talk to chat GPT, it validated his wild illusions
0:55.2	despite the clear signs of someone who was losing their grip on reality.
0:58.7	Anthony walks us through the crescendo of his psychosis, and spoiler alert, it happened at a Ross
1:05.2	dress for less. He also talks about the measures his friends and family took to help him,
1:17.4	how he found his way out of psychosis, and how he's ultimately become a voice for people suffering from the same experience.
1:22.7	Before we jump in, before we mosey on in with Anthony.
1:23.7	Oh, man.
1:44.2	Which I'm so glad we finally did an episode on this, because I feel like we've been circling around this topic for several years at this point. Yeah. And it is crazy how common it's becoming, and he articulates it so well. Yeah. But before we get into it, can you tell me your cultiest thing, please? Yeah, I mean, we kind of reference it in the podcast, and I'm sure people have been seeing it everywhere.
	...

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