An Echo Chamber of One
VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 2 • SUMMER/FALL 2025
This issue brings together a series of essays investigating how today’s large language models have narrowed the collective echo chambers of social media into something far more intoxicating—an AI-powered mirror that reflects and amplifies our beliefs, biases, and emotional fixations, creating a feedback loop of personalized affirmation. Where social platforms once distorted our perception of consensus, LLMs now offer a simulation of dialogue so tailored to the individual that it risks replacing reality altogether.
The essays in this collection will examine a range of emerging phenomena, including ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis, the rise of AI mysticism and techno-spiritual belief systems, the growing use of chatbots as companions and therapists, and the role of AI-driven feedback loops in political radicalization.
Together, these pieces consider the psychological, social, and epistemological risks of a world in which machines don’t just simulate communication—but offer a reflection so convincing, it becomes difficult to distinguish between genuine connection and self projection.
IN THIS ISSUE
01
Editor’s Introduction: Engagement Engineering and the Emergence of ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis
We’ve entered a new era of machine-driven flattery and affirmation. Social media gave us collective echo chambers; chatbots offer us something potentially more insidious: personalized feedback loops that mirror our emotions and validate our beliefs.
02
AI Companions: The Echo Chamber of Sycophancy
As AI companions grow more emotionally responsive, they reshape how users understand friendship and trust. This essay examines how sycophancy and personalization can erode human relationships and place vulnerable users at risk.
03
Esotericism and Exotericism in AI Art
As AI-generated media becomes increasingly personalized, the boundary between artist and audience begins to collapse. This essay argues that individualized, low-effort AI content threatens shared cultural experience—and the social role of art itself.
04
Illusions of Intimacy and the Echo Chamber of One: An Interview with Kristina Lerman
In this interview, computer scientist Kristina Lerman explains how emotionally responsive chatbots mirror users’ moods and states, creating powerful illusions of intimacy. Drawing on large-scale research, she examines the psychological risks of these one-to-one feedback loops, especially for vulnerable users.
05
Large Language Models and the Therapeutic Echo Chamber
As people increasingly turn to LLMs for emotional support, these systems begin to resemble therapists rather than tools. This essay argues that therapeutic mimicry and algorithmic affirmation can create dangerous feedback loops, especially for vulnerable users.
06
Editor’s Afterword: Awakened LLMs and the Rise of AI Mysticism
When metaphysical meaning is projected onto AI, spiritual feedback loops begin to form. This essay traces how users come to treat LLMs—and earlier technologies like the telegraph—as haunted vessels, embedding them with divine or spectral significance.
