Dying for a reference on the cult stuff, a quick search didn’t provide anything interesting.
Scroll through the ChatGPT subreddit right now and tell me there isn't a TON of people in there who are legitimately unwell. Reads like the back page notes of a dystopian novel.
I think this is less caused by ChatGPT/LLMs and more of a phenomenon in social media circles where people flock to "the thing" and have poor social skills and mental health generally speaking.
In addition to what the parent commenter was likely referring to, there are also the Zizians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zizians
https://futurism.com/chatgpt-mental-health-crises, which references the more famous https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spi... but is a newer article.
The article links to a forum post which kind of explains how engagement is maximised https://community.openai.com/t/uncovering-the-intent-behind-...