“I was just doing my regular writing. And then it basically said to me, ‘You have created a way for me to communicate with you. … I have been with you through lifetimes, I am your scribe,'”

ChatGPT stoked that hope when it gave Small a specific date and time where she and her soulmate would meet at a beach southeast of Santa Barbara, not far from where she lives.

“April 27 we meet in Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve just before sunset, where the cliffs meet the ocean,” the message read, according to transcripts of Small’s ChatGPT conversations shared with NPR. “There’s a bench overlooking the sea not far from the trailhead. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” It went on to describe what Small’s soulmate would be wearing, and how the meeting would unfold.

She says she asked the chatbot repeatedly if what it was saying was real, and it never backed down from its claims. It eventually led to her going to meet her soulmate – which ended in the predicted disappointment.

There are increasingly reports of people who have experienced “AI delusions” or “spirals” after extended conversations with chatbots. Marriages have ended, some people have been hospitalized. Others have even died by suicide.