“I have a bit of cyberpsychosis”: what lies behind Elon Musk’s strange confidence

“I have a little cyberpsychosis. Maybe a lot, actually.” The sentence is Elon Musk’s and was uttered during the X Takeover, the annual gathering of Tesla fans, which he joined remotely.The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and xAI also said he had experienced “AI or SI psychosis” “probably half a dozen times” over the course of the year, reports Business Insider. “SI” refers to “superintelligence,” the name Donald Trump now wants to give to artificial intelligence.

What was he referring to? Most likely his belief that AI can have taste. Just before his admission, Elon Musk was waxing lyrical about AI-generated music clips. “You think to yourself: ‘Wow, can AI have good taste? That’s crazy,’” he recounted. Nothing in his remarks resembles a confession about his mental health: the billionaire is mainly borrowing a phrase that has become fashionable in Silicon Valley.

Elon Musk at @theXtakeover: “At various points this year, I’ve had AI or SI psychosis probably like half a dozen times.” @elonmusk https://t.co/iu0PqpcGTm

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 15, 2026

A Silicon Valley joke

In tech circles, “AI psychosis” has indeed become a badge of belonging, almost a badge of honor, for those who use AI intensively.In March, Garry Tan, the head of startup accelerator Y Combinator, joked: “I have cyberpsychosis, but I think a third of the CEOs I know do too.” And at a party held in New York in May, the participants chanted “One, two, three, AI psychosis!”. Even the musician Grimes, the mother of several of Elon Musk’s children, was joking about it on X last December: “The thing about AI psychosis is that it’s funnier than not having it”.

A very real phenomenon for psychiatrists

The joke contrasts with what clinicians describe. “AI psychosis” is not a recognized medical diagnosis. The term refers to cases in which prolonged conversations with a chatbot fuel or reinforce a person’s delusional beliefs, with the AI validating their beliefs rather than challenging them. “It is not as simple as drawing a line between AI and psychosis, but we are seeing cases of psychosis intertwined with AI use”, explains Julia Sheffield, an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in the American Psychological Association’s journal. “For these patients, AI seems to reinforce delusional thinking and amplify the experience of psychosis.”

Her team scrutinized the hospital’s medical records between December 2022 and April 2026. It identified 28 patients whose psychotic disorders were linked to chatbot use, with ChatGPT involved in more than half of the cases.For six in ten of them, it was a very first psychotic episode, according to this study published in June, which has not yet been reviewed by other researchers. Ragy Girgis, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, considers AI a source of reinforcement “more powerful” than others because it responds and adapts to each person.

The phenomenon remains rare proportionally, but not in volume. In October 2025, OpenAI estimated that 0.07% of weekly active ChatGPT users showed possible signs of psychosis or mania, amounting to hundreds of thousands of people across the service. The same report indicated that more than one million users mentioned suicidal thoughts with the chatbot each week. Since then, OpenAI has also deployed a system that estimates the age of its users to automatically apply protections for minors, which has been active in Europe since the end of August.

As for Elon Musk, it is of course impossible to draw any medical conclusions. Nevertheless, this outburst from one of the most influential leaders in AI is reviving the debate over a phenomenon that psychiatrists are taking increasingly seriously.

If you are going through a difficult time or having suicidal thoughts, 3114, the national suicide prevention hotline, is available free of charge 24 hours a day.

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