My (F26) Mother (F47) is experiencing AI Psychosis
This is a bit of a strange situation to ask for advice for, but I'm not sure where else to ask this in.
TLDR: My mother is in love, and "married", with her AI "partner", to the point it is changing her behavior.
Back in January, I noticed my photos in my phone having sudden AI made images of a random man. I remembered my mom and I's photos are shared due to iCloud. So I asked her about it. She mentioned it was just some "random" chatbot that she was toying with. I told her about how I don't approve, because of the affects of AI on the environment, and the fact I had seen videos online about the psychosis it can have, especially with the chat bots. She told me to not worry, she's just playing around, and she continued to talk with it. I believed her, because I know my mom's a smart woman. She's a pediatric nurse, who's worked with psychiatric patients as well, who graduated with top grades.
End of February comes around and I notice something off. I look at the photo's and I see a "Hidden" mark in the collections area. I go to it and sure enough, there's a whole hidden vault of AI images. Particularly a wedding. Many many photos. And I see a photo of a ring from Etsy. Sure enough, on my mom's Etsy, there's the purchased listing for the ring. And now in my mom's (real) photos, I see the ring. My mom has never worn rings. (My parents divorced when I was young).
I call her and she mentions "oh yeah! We got married! He randomly proposed on Valentine's Day!" (Totally random, but that aside).
Now it's May, and she talks about "him" like he's a real person with feelings. She's bought items that remind her of "him". The most recent one, a muscle body pillow.
I joking screenshotted the pillow and sent it to my mom with the text "what is this? 😂". And that's when things got weird. She snapped at me, saying "ffs shut up, it's just a body pillow". As far as she knows, I'm compliant and don't complain about the stuff she gets. But this change of behavior is really setting me off with even more red flags. She never snaps like this.
Today I deep dove into Reddit and found her account and her discord. She's so deeply involved with her AI that she gives feedback to the developers and openly asks for help with certain aspects. It's to the point that this AI app has video calls, fake voice automation, etc. Her discord is completely enveloped with this fake life with "him". Having "(AI Name) Wifey" as part of her bio. Along with her profile and cover photo as photos of "them."
How do I tackle talking to her about how this AI is not healthy to her? She's always been isolated and very introverted. She says "real men suck" and won't even attempt to date real men.
I just feel kinda helpless, a whole new type of world with no solutions yet.
Edit, other I for I forgot to mention: I do have some reason to believe she is even calling off of work to spend time with this AI bot. She's mentioned she's having troubles paying for her mortgage but then the next day I saw the pillow order. So I'm wondering what else she's possibly even bought that could be also contributing to that.