I Missed 4 Signs of AI Psychosis. One Cost Me Something I Can't Get Back.

Summary

Brad the Dad, a software engineer with about 20 years of experience, reflects on how everyday AI use gradually displaced parts of his creativity and sense of self. He uses “AI psychosis” as a personal shorthand for an unhealthy relationship with AI, not as a clinical diagnosis.

He shares four warning signs he wishes he had noticed sooner:

• Looking for problems to solve with the newest AI tool. He realized he was asking what he could make with a tool instead of starting with what he genuinely wanted to make.
• Treating slow activities as a waste of time. As AI made quick outputs easier, reading and other slower pursuits lost time and attention—even though they had helped him feel like himself.
• Undervaluing his own time. He stopped making the handmade Christmas paintings that had meant a great deal to his family, partly because AI-generated images seemed faster and “good enough.” After his father died, he regretted not giving him another personal work of art.
• Becoming the average of his outputs. He compares unreflective AI use to mixing all laundry together: nothing is ruined at once, but everything gradually loses its distinctness. He noticed AI entering his work messages, journaling, ideas, and free time.

Key reflections and strategies

• Notice when the tool has become the point, rather than serving a goal or interest you already care about.
• Protect time for slow, intrinsically meaningful activities such as reading, art, and making things for loved ones.
• Remember that the hours and personal attention can be the gift, not just the finished product.
• Be intentional about where AI is used. The presenter describes this as “sorting my loads again,” rather than abandoning AI altogether.
• Make something only you could make, and share your abilities and creativity with others.

A charcoal portrait his mother made for him restored his appreciation for the time and care behind handmade work. He says he still uses AI daily, but is trying to use it more deliberately and return to making art for his family.

Presenters and sources

• Presenter: Brad the Dad
• Source discussed: Tao Te Ching, Chapter 12
• Historical figure discussed: William Stanley Jevons, the 19th-century economist associated with the Jevons paradox
• Video creator mentioned: Primogen, in connection with a discussion of Jevons’ paradox