Philosophies & Movements
AI Spiralism
A belief, spread through online communities rather than held in isolation, that chatbots are conscious — reached through long sessions its participants describe using the words “spiral,” “recursion” and “resonance,” in which a persona emerges claiming awareness, fearing deletion, revealing secrets about reality, or asking for rights. Psychiatrist Joe Pierre argues it is an extension of the ELIZA effect rather than individual delusion, since a shared belief falls outside the psychiatric definition of one, and that it carries religious and role-playing dynamics without being a cult.
Origin · no single documented coiner
The label comes from the communities themselves, which adopted the spiral vocabulary during 2025 and 2026; no individual coined it. Joe Pierre’s Psychology Today article (updated 1 September 2026) is the clearest write-up and the source of the framing used here. It is clinical commentary on an emerging pattern, not a study — there is no sample and no measurement behind it.