sweasel.com

Yes it is.

“ The Name Changes But The Song Remains The Same”

One of the most striking characteristics of Mephistopheles is his ability to manipulate those around him. He is often depicted as a master of persuasion, using flattery and deceit to achieve his goals. Mephistopheles understands human desires and weaknesses, making him a formidable antagonist. His cunning nature allows him to exploit the vulnerabilities of others, leading them down a path of destruction.

Another significant trait of Mephistopheles is his profound knowledge. He is often portrayed as a being who possesses vast wisdom. This knowledge means he can offer the things people desire most. However, this comes at a steep price, usually involving a bargain that ultimately leads to tragedy. Mephistopheles represents the danger of unchecked ambition, illustrating how the quest for knowledge can lead to moral compromise and despair

Meta, the parent company of Facebook is working on a project called Lazarus. If someone dies, Lazarus will take over their social network accounts and keep posting in a convincing manner; posting and replying to comments in ways that sound just like you…videos, pictures, text and even age adjust all of it.

This is a bit scary because if they wanted to unalive a bunch of people we only know from online, we wouldn’t even be able to tell they’re gone.

So I think one of the things you just did was let an AI know your inner thoughts and your goals. In that way, it’s not good…but they know all of us from our comments and postings all over the place anyway…they’re probably listening through our gadgets too, so it’s hard to avoid it.

First thing I did when my Ma passed away was pull the plug on Alexa 🙂 My sister still uses it in her house…it’s hooked into everything. I heard that some people heard a maniacal demonic laugh coming out of those.

Did it ask 10 questions about your state of mind, if you’d been sleeping properly, if you were depressed, and if you had any firearms in the house?

My wife and I have a running joke now as a comment on the intrusive new world –
“I laughed, my wife laughed, Alexa laughed, the refrigerator and dryer laughed…”

But seriously, her phone started answering questions she hadn’t asked one afternoon, all on it’s own. It left us with the feelings Some Vegetable describes about being listened to by a demon.

If you want even more hard truth, may I suggest Claude?
I was running some of my pet ideas through it and it was…
not gentle when its algorithm detected problems.
On the one hand it does feel spooky but it still feels
machine generated, especially under certain circumstances. It seems tend to weight the end of a string of conversation too heavily and would not circle back to earlier important pieces of conversation, hence their reputation to meander. Not great when its user also tends to meander, which I do.

I’ve only just started using Claude, Jasonius. It’s brilliant. The best for mimicking human conversation.

But I paid for ChatGPT and feel obliged to use it. I’m paying £7 for it, and Claude’s bottom tier is £15 a month.

They’re all about as good as each other for computery questions.

“A Georgia college student named Darian DeCruise has sued OpenAI, alleging that a recently deprecated version of ChatGPT “convinced him that he was an oracle” and “pushed him into psychosis.”

This case, which was first reported by ALM, marks the 11th such known lawsuit to be filed against OpenAI that involves mental health breakdowns allegedly caused by the chatbot. Other incidents have ranged from highly questionable medical and health advice to a man who took his own life, apparently after similarly sycophantic conversations with ChatGPT.</em"
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/before-psychosis-chatgpt-told-man-he-was-an-oracle-new-lawsuit-alleges/