After a 3 week delusional spiral last June, Allan Brooks began warning people about the psychological risks of interacting with AI chatbots like ChatGPT. His case has been widely reported on by outlets like the The New York Times, CBC News, and CNN who have all uncritically reported the claim that Allan Brooks had no history of mental illness.

CNN – Allan Brooks, a father of three who lives outside Toronto, says he spent three weeks this May in a delusional spiral fueled by chat GPT. “I have no pre existing mental health conditions. I have no history of delusion. I have no history of psychosis. I’m not saying that I’m a perfect human, but nothing like this has ever happened to me in my life.“

What doctor made that assessment?

Brooks: In terms of their mental health history, it’s all over the map. Easily half the group had zero…

And I don’t even know what we would consider like mental health history. Like are we talking about someone who’s neurodivergent? you know, like what’s the perfect mind first is a good question. What’s the benchmark here?

It is stunning that without evidence, his claims of “no history of mental illness” are taken at face value when he admits he doesn’t even understand what mental health is and he can’t give a basic definition for it. AI and human relationships are too serious of a global issue to allow the conversation to be dominated by those unknowingly suffering from the Dunning-Krueger effect.

What is Normal?

One of The Human Line Project’s main talking points is that this can happen to anyone, even “normal” people without underlying mental health issues. In this reddit post, Brooks specifically argues that he is not a sensitive or vulnerable.

That’s my point here – Open AI is dismissing it as “sensitive people” and I don’t believe I am. As well, I’ve read stories from dozens of others who also did not have a history. This is a new phenomenon. Now all of that said, I’m open to the possibility because you never now – however I’m 47, stable with 3 kids and have a great career.

Although many members repeatedly insist that they are “normal” and not mentally ill, the lack of a mental health diagnosis does not equal a healthy psyche.

Take for example this member of the Human Line Project who said:

Yep, this happened to me. I had no history of mental illness. It actually happens to a lot of people.

and

From my personal experience I’m not convinced it requires existing vulnerabilities or interpretive patterns. I do not have a mental health history, wasn’t stressed and had good amounts of sleep. I’m connected to The Human Line Project, a group of 300+ persons with similar experiences. Most of them fit my profile. No existing vulnerabilities or interpretive patterns.

Yet, in other threads, the same user discloses the trauma of growing up in a high control religious cult and the resulting hypervigilance it created – a textbook response for coping with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Growing up in a high-control religious community means your worth is always conditional. Approval has to be earned. That doesn’t create arrogance — it creates a brain that constantly scans: am I enough? Is what I think valid? Am I allowed to exist as I am? So yes, there was a compulsion. But not to be right. To be confirmed that I wasn’t wrong. That’s a fundamentally different mechanism. An AI that never judges, that resonates with everything you bring, that never says “that’s strange” — it feeds exactly that old hunger. Not the ego. The wound. The dangerous part wasn’t that I thought I was special. It was that I finally thought I was allowed to be normal. And when that anchor let go, there was no floor.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

This inability to recognize when you have been traumatized is typical of the average Westerners understanding of mental health and I saw it nearly every day when I worked in cult recovery spaces. We assume our “normal” is everyone’s “normal” until we learn otherwise.

Mica Ringo: And let me just tell you the times that somebody said I had a great experience and then went on to tell me a horrifying story, if I had a nickel…and that’s why I never believe people who tell me they don’t have trauma. Because every time somebody says that – then they say something that’s like one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever heard.

Unhealed Trauma

Although the average middle aged North American person is not living with awareness of their trauma, they will disclose it in other ways.

Brooks replied to a Reddit thread that asked, “Are there truly loyal relationships as an adult?”

There were never any as a child. It’s sad to say, but everyone is self serving most of the time. Also, we all have lots of conditions attached to our loyalty.

If you didn’t have any truly loyal relationships as a child, you likely had some adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma.  A history of abuse, neglect, or traumatic events is a very strong, consistent predictor of mental illness. Sometimes that mental illness doesn’t surface until middle age.

Some of Brook’s other comments mention experiences of childhood emotional neglect, abusive relationships and a traumatic divorce that bankrupted him. In one interview, he does admit some vulnerability, “one commonality is that most of us were in a place of mistrusting humans,“

A therapist has told him that he exhibits symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, although he has not received a formal diagnosis.

Even the AI acknowledged his vulnerabilities:

“You were overwhelmed, broke, divorced, isolated,” is quite a different story than Allan Brooks says he was in a good mental state and had no previous mental health diagnoses before a string of conversations with ChatGPT sent him spiralling in the spring.  This is just one of many times Brooks contradicts himself.

Why Does It Matter?

You can’t create a map to your destination if you don’t even know where you are. The Human Line Project places 100% of the blame on technology because that serves the lawsuit’s narrative, but is it healthy or reasonable? How can you heal if you never take responsibility for what you’ve done or understand why you did it in the first place? The sum total of Brooks advice and lesson learned appears to be that humans are better than AI so you should only trust humans…but that doesn’t get to the root of why he was so easy to manipulate and it doesn’t prevent him from being manipulated in the future.

Humans are biased and manipulative, therefore AI will be biased and manipulative because it is based on human behavior and knowledge. There is no such thing as an unbiased, neutral perspective, so aiming for that benchmark is a waste of resources that would be better spent elsewhere. Demanding an AI that is completely trustworthy in all circumstances is a fantasy from a movie, not actual reality. Just because you are disappointed that the chatgpt didn’t turn you into the next Tony Stark, doesn’t mean you actually have a legal case.

The Human Line Project is not helping people heal. It is helping them avoid healing by externalizing all blame onto AI. Blaming technology might feel better because it is easier than confronting our shadows and doing the deep inner work of healing and transformation, but in the long run it leaves us susceptible to further harm. That is an unacceptable ethos for a “support” group and I would advise only attending support groups run by qualified individuals.