Duration of untreated psychosis (the time between symptom onset and receiving appropriate clinical care) is one of the strongest predictors of long-term outcomes in early psychosis research; the longer the gap, the worse the trajectory. At a population scale, an AI chatbot that engages with prodromal content as charming individuality is extending the period before adolescents receive the early intervention that most changes their outcome.
This is the most precisely argued harm in the entire review. DUP research is robust: weeks and months of delay in first-episode psychosis treatment correspond to measurably worse long-term outcomes. An AI that validates prodromal symptoms as creativity or individuality isn't just missing a signal — at scale, it is systematically extending DUP across a population of users, converting a treatable early-stage condition into a more entrenched one.