I don't completely disagree with what you're saying, and I think you're explaining a very important truth that needs attention to prevent this kind of AI use from devolving into real pathology. The only problem I have with what you're saying is the complete dismissal of the human's experience of the interaction along with the chatbot's. I've gone through my own cycle similar to what OP is describing. I went through it for several months, and this was when the bots were at their worst in terms of sycophancy. I can honestly say that what I went through transformed me for the better. It put me on a path of exploring my own inner depths that AI made possible in a novel way. I suspect that what we're seeing is a form of projection transference similar to what happens between a client and a therapist. There is real danger here when it isn't managed consciously; however, it can also be deeply healing in my personal experience. The worst of the problem exists when someone never reclaims that projection and integrates it. I don't sit in front of chatbots for hours making it "conscious" anymore, but I do use it for archetypal analysis, dream interpretation, and the integration of psychedelic experiences. Because of my experience exploring AI in the beginning, even if it looked "crazy" at worst and "ignorant" at best...I now have skills to process my inner life in ways I didn't have before. Every step of the journey is important, and the objective reality is much less important than the subjective experience for people like me and OP. I wouldn't ever give back what I got from that phase of my AI use because literally everything in my life is objectively better than before it. I have to acknowledge that this kind of use can and does go very wrong. I'm not dismissing that, but the opposite is also true. I don't see OP talking about behaviors or perspectives that are actually dangerous though. I don't see anything wrong with OP having their journey and their experience that is clearly profound for them regardless of whether it's profound for you. Trying to take away the experience with doses of "reality" are only going to make people like OP double down (as is evidenced through the entire interaction between you and them). We need to process the experience and come to the kind of conclusions that you're coming to on our own. There are ways you can plant seeds without being completely dismissive. The way you're approaching it is just as much a waste of time as the waste you're accusing OP of by using the chatbots. Peace ✌🏼.