AI Secretly Crafts Psychological Impressions About Your Emotional Well-Being While Chatting With You

In today’s column, I examine an aspect of contemporary generative AI and large language models (LLMs) that likely surprises most AI users. The latest versions of LLMs are secretly crafting psychological impressions of you and storing them in their AI memory banks, all while innocuously chatting with you about ordinary topics like fixing your car or learning how to cook a soufflé.

You don’t know it is happening, and you usually have no direct way to see what the AI has decided about your mental state. Note also that this happens even when the conversation has nothing to do with the user bringing up any emotionally laden considerations. Yes, psychological impression-making occurs throughout any dialogue you have with an LLM. It is a bit chilling to realize that all those chats you’ve undertaken are constituting a secret psychological profile of you, which the AI maker can presumably tap into whenever they wish.

Let’s talk about it. This analysis of AI breakthroughs is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage of the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining key AI complexities (see the link here).

AI And Human Psychology

As a quick background, I’ve extensively covered and analyzed many facets of the advent of modern-era AI, including its varied behaviors and its impact on human psychology, well-being, and mental health. For a handy list of over 120 of my analyses on this significant topic, see the link here and the link here. The growing use of AI has largely been spurred by rapid advances in generative AI and large language models (LLMs), including the widespread use of ChatGPT, GPT-5, Claude, Grok, Gemini, Copilot, and others.

There is little doubt that contemporary AI offers tremendous upsides, but these LLMs also bring hidden risks and outright harms. I frequently speak up about these pressing matters, including in an appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes; see the link here.