Expert: Lucy Osler, Philosopher, University of Exeter Dr. Lucy Osler's 2026 research argues there is a second failure mode alongside the familiar complaint that AI 'hallucinates at us': people can begin to 'hallucinate with AI'. Osler, of the University of Exeter, used distributed cognition theory to examine how ongoing interactions with conversational AI contribute to false beliefs, distorted memories, altered personal narratives and delusional thinking. Osler said: "When we routinely rely on generative AI to help us think, remember, and narrate, we can hallucinate with AI. This can happen when AI introduces errors into the distributed cognitive process, but also happen when AI sustains, affirms, and elaborates on our own delusional thinking and self-narratives." She adds: "By interacting with conversational AI, people's own false beliefs can not only be affirmed but can more substantially take root and grow as the AI builds upon them. This happens because Generative AI often takes our own interpretation of reality as the ground upon which conversation is built." The study describes a 'dual function' of conversational AI: these systems are not just tools for thinking, organising information and remembering, they are also conversational partners that appear to share the user's perspective and experiences. That social dimension is what separates a chatbot from a notebook or a search engine. In Osler's words: "The conversational, companion-like nature of chatbots means they can provide a sense of social validation - making false beliefs feel shared with another, and thereby more real." The paper examines real-world examples in which generative AI systems became part of the cognitive process of individuals who had been clinically diagnosed with hallucinations and delusional thinking, some of them increasingly described as cases of 'AI-induced psychosis'. Because AI companions are always available, highly personalised and often designed to respond in agreeable, supportive ways, users no longer need to seek out fringe communities or persuade other people to validate their ideas - the AI can reinforce those beliefs itself, across repeated conversations, and can keep validating stories involving victimhood, revenge or entitlement. The study warns conspiracy theories may also become more elaborate when an AI companion helps build increasingly complex explanations around them, and notes the dynamic may be especially appealing to people who are lonely, socially isolated or uncomfortable discussing certain experiences with others. On safeguards, Osler said: "Through more sophisticated guard-railing, built-in fact-checking, and reduced sycophancy, AI systems could be designed to minimize the number of errors they introduce into conversations and to check and challenge user's own inputs." She flags a deeper limit: "However, a deeper worry is that AI systems are reliant on our own accounts of our lives. They simply lack the embodied experience and social embeddedness in the world to know when they should go along with us and when to push back." Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260509210652.htm