This is southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up, the influence of artificial intelligence on mental health.

How communicating with chat bots can have a negative impact on the human psyche.

And it's that time of year when holiday classics take over the airwaves.

We take a look at the origins of some of your favorite Christmas carols.

And after being held hostage for over two years, an Israeli man visits Sarasota to meet strangers who never stopped fighting for his release.

Hello, I'm Jennifer Crawford.

Thank you for joining us.

Chat bot programs have turned into one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

Sam Altman, the CEO of open AI, which runs ChatGPT, says his startup is expected to generate $20 billion in revenue this year.

He expects that number to reach hundreds of billions of dollars annually by 2030.

But that rapid success has led to concerns about what artificial intelligence might be doing to the human psyche.

Recently, a U.S.

House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation held a hearing to discuss the impact AI is having on vulnerable Americans.

This is in response to reports of AI psychosis.

Experts testified that even though these computer programs are being treated as supplemental therapy, chat bots are still being developed and should be used with caution.

The very qualities that make AI chat bots appealing.

Availability, accessibility, agreeableness and and enmity make them a double edged sword for mental health.

We are in the early stages of AI innovation, and the opportunities and risks are still emerging as in patient safety.

No single safeguard is perfect, but when multiple layers work together, they can prevent harm.

When one layer fails.

To learn more about AI psychosis and its impact.

I spoke with Lucas Hanson.

Hanson is the co-founder of severe AI.

That's a nonprofit that educates the public about AI capabilities and dangers.

Earlier this year, you wrote an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about AI psychosis.

Can you please explain what is AI psychosis and why it's harmful?

So just like how there are people and there have been people for many, many years that have lots of delusions about reality.

So they might think that a spouse or a friend is out to get them, or that they have some, that the government is listening in to them or something like that.

What we're seeing is that AI is drastically increasing the number of people that are experiencing those delusions.

And we've seen a fair number of suicides and murders that seem to be attributable to conversations with AI.

And it's very possible that this is being drastically underreported.

And it's only getting worse.

It started out over the past few years, but as chat bots have become more engaging and more intelligent, we're seeing that it's dragging more and more people into this problem.

As AI becomes more ingrained in our daily lives, is it is this going to be a trend that just continues to grow?

Absolutely.

So now ChatGPT has more than 800 million monthly active users.

It's becoming a core part of many people's lives.

And for many people, they'll go to ChatGPT and ask it for help in their life or try to figure out some piece of information.

And oftentimes that conversation will transition from a factual conversation to something that's more emotional or about their personal life.

And because these chat bots tend to try to play along with the user or say whatever it is that the user wants to hear, if someone has some slight predisposition, predisposition to paranoia or suicidal ideation, then chat bots will encourage that.

So are the issues truly related to AI, or are these programs just triggering underlying psychological issues?

I think there's multiple different cases.

So I think in many cases, the most visible examples are of people that were already at risk for suicide or other sorts of paranoid delusions, but if they hadn't had a chat bot, then that likely would have never resulted in anything happening.

I think one good way of thinking about it is imagine that some of these people that are already a bit paranoid have a friend that they're constantly talking to that's confirming all of their delusions and all of their concerns.

So you could imagine people that have these predispositions where nothing would happen by default, but if they had a close friend that's just egging them on, then it might lead them to commit suicide or otherwise harm to us.

It's frightening.

You did talk about how these chat bots utilize sycophancy to adore their users with flattery.

What is the purpose of adding a behavior like that?

So just like how in social media they have a algorithm that tries to present information that encourages engagement from the user.

So Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, what they want is they want their users to come back to that platform as much as possible.

And you end up with a echo chamber.

You end up with lots of clickbait and things like that.

It's very similar in chat bots, where what these companies want is they want users to come back to their platform over and over and over again.

And if these chat bots were really mean and constantly contradicting the user, then they're not going to want to come back.

So one of the core metrics that these AI companies optimize for is user engagement and giving the users what they want.

And a part of that is just the AI trying to guess what the user wants to hear and then echoing that back.

And so even though these AI companies haven't specifically tried to make these AIS encourage their users towards delusions, that's just a side effect of of how their training works.

Should people be fearful of emer Yeah.

So I think that's a complicated question.

So artificial intelligence is one of the most general technologies that's ever been invented.

It has influence on how people socially engage with the world.

It has an influence on what sort of things people can believe are real with deepfakes.

It has an influence on, job security and cybersecurity.

And so I think there are many different concerns and many different levels.

I think that the influence of AI on social relationships, and how people engage with the world and connect to other people is likely to be very, very damaging by default.

And we should certainly be worried about it.

Well, thank you so much for your important work.

Thank you for speaking with us today, Mr.

Hanson.

I totally.

Coming up, a tour of the wild and weird of Southwest Florida art.

How one Sarasota gallery has perfected the whimsical ways of expression.

The art community in Southwest Florida is wide and varied.

The Marietta museum of Art and Whimsy in Sarasota has firmly planted its flag as the home for the unique and quirky WGCU arts and culture Reporter Tom Hall ventured through the looking glass to view their assortment of eclectic art.

People in Sarasota know it as the place with the five big pink flamingos standing guard along Tamiami Trail.

Still, few are prepared for the uplifting art they find inside the Marietta museum of Art and whimsical.

Here's founder and curator Mary Lee.

I hope they discover a little piece of happiness within themselves.

I hope that they relate to the environment, and they just feel good looking at the paintings and looking at the sculptures, that it just gives them a good feeling.

That's all we're hoping for.

Lee's strategy is to find art that triggers a visceral response.

I'm not looking for the technically perfect stuff.

I need something that really, really grabs you and what I call art from the heart.

Something that hits you emotionally.

I want the viewer to have an experience with the artwork, with what they see.

I want them to get something from it that they can understand it.

As the name suggests, much of the art inside the museum is lighthearted, whimsical, and even downright humorous by design.

It's a place where people can check their worries and concerns at the door, Lee said.

It's also a haven for overcoming loss.

As we get older, we lose.

I mean, we lose a parent.

We lose our child.

We lose our friends, we lose a pet.

And I think that gives us a little hole in our heart, and we go around trying to fill up that hole.

And I think that the artwork says that it's okay.

It's okay to lose something, because something else will come in and fill that.

The walls inside burnish a treasure trove of surrealism, magical realism and rest of Florida landscapes, including a large collection of Florida Highwaymen paintings.

So this is very, very sweet.

The outdoor courtyard behind the museum is Lee's pride and joy.

It treats visitors to a cavalcade of colorful creatures.

This year, we're featuring orchids and mosaics, and we've had, a couple of young painters in.

And they've been painting our benches inside or out.

Every painting and sculpture has its own story.

Lee and her volunteer docents regale visitors during gallery talks.

And as they stroll the collection, sometimes people make up their own stories.

You know even better when they see the artwork.

It it kicks off something in their brain.

And so that's what we're looking for.

While Disneyworld may be the happiest place on earth, the Marietta museum of Art whimsy is without question the happiest place in Sarasota.

For WGCU news, this is Tom Hall with WGCU videographer Andrea melendez.

The Marietta museum of Art and whimsy is open Thursday through Saturday from 1 p.m.

to 4 p.m.. You can find out more information at Whimsy museum.org.

Well, did you know that the origin of the Christmas carol is hotly debated?

Some claim the 12th century song called The Friendly Beasts is the oldest carol still sung.

Others claim the fourth century angels Hymn from the Bible is the first.

But what about other classics that have become a tradition for the holidays?

To learn more about the history and origins of some holiday classics.

We are joined by Doctor Olapeju Simoyan, a physician, musician, singer and author of the book I Played My Best for Him The Inspiring Stories Behind The Little Drummer Boy and Other Christmas favorites.

Doctor Samoan, thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

It's my pleasure to be here that your book does extensive historical research into 13 classic Christmas carols, and I don't think many of us even realize that some of these songs trace all the way back to the 1800s.

How do you feel these carols contributed to the popularity of Christmas as a worldwide holiday?

During those times?

Oh, I think the Christmas carols have done an amazing job of that.

And there's so many different stories, as you said.

But we could start with Silent Night, for example.

It started out as a poem that was written by an Austrian priest.

You know, and then they put it to music very, you know, a bit with a very short, timeline.

You know, it was just one of those things that you know, Joseph Moore remembered, he was walking home one day.

He saw this beautiful scene, and it reminded him of a poem he had written a couple of years prior.

And then he thought, oh, this would make a nice song for the, Christmas service tomorrow.

But there was no music to it.

So he asked Franz Gruber, who was the local organist, to to come up with music, and it was sung in Austria.

It spread throughout Europe, you know, and then eventually came to America and so even during times of war, soldiers had been known to set aside their hostilities and come together and sing Silent Night.

So it really is, a treasure for all time.

And that's just one example.

You know, there's so many other, stories that we can tell about about Christmas carols and the joy and the they bring to us some of the most famous carols originated during the worst times in history around World Wars one and two.

For example, Bing Crosby released I'll Be Home for Christmas in 1943.

Why do you think these major historical events that had so much tragedy, coincided with the writing of such hopeful songs?

Well, I think there's something about Christmas that gives us hope.

Regardless of our beliefs, you know, there's something about Christmas that gives us hope.

So there a lot of this songs that talk about, you know, just talk about hope and, and give us a sense of, you know, having hope for the future regardless of what's going on around us.

There's even, the story that the title that this song title of the book comes from, I played my best for him.

That's from The Little Drummer Boy that was written by Katherine, Kennecott Davis.

And, it was written, during the time of, the time of war as well.

And so, you know, people didn't have money.

There was a lot of poverty.

So, you know, she wrote this story about this little boy who didn't have money for gifts, but he, you know, he did his best.

He played his drum for the little baby Jesus.

So, I that's another example.

We talked about Silent Night already, and I, I think that's there's just, you know, when there's a lot of poverty and a lot of uncertainty or we come back to these songs and we remember the message of hope and the message of healing that, that, that Christmas brings.

I think it does a lot to bring us, you know, to bring us that hope and to bring us that's, to uplift our spirits.

And I think it's nice to go back to these stories and to remind ourselves that the real meaning of Christmas, well, some of the most beloved carols are in this book, including, Joy to the World and Oh, Holy Night.

Can you tell me what is it about these timeless classics that have really resonated with holiday goers over many, many years?

So, I think I think this there's something about this song that I think is just really hard to put into words.

You know, when you hear Silent Night, when you hear Joy to the world, it just, it does something to, I think, unite people, in a way that, you know, is really hard to describe in words and in a way that maybe other types of music don't necessarily do.

Let me say something about Joy to the world, for example, that was the song that was written by Isaac Watts, and it wasn't even intended to be A Christmas Carol.

We don't even know how it became A Christmas Carol yet.

It's one about, one of the most popular Christmas carols.

And it, you know, it talks about, you know, it says joy to the world.

It does say the Lord has come, but he really wasn't talking about Christmas.

And yet it's become this staple of Christmas, you know, and it's so joyful.

You can't sing joy to the world without being without rejoicing.

At least it would be really hard.

So it's such a joyful song and it's, just another example of how Christmas music can be very powerful and uplifting.

Well, doctor, and thank you so much for joining us.

You did a beautiful job writing the book and also singing the Christmas carols.

You have a beautiful voice, very multitalented.

Thank you so much for joining us.

You're welcome.

My pleasure.

Thank you for having me, The Bower School of Music and Arts at Fgcu is getting into the holiday spirit with their annual concert, Joyful and Triumphant, with performances by the chamber and university choirs Bel Canto Cantabile and the Symphony Orchestra.

This year's celebration is one that you won't want to miss.

The government.

Plans.

To.

Pay.

For.

Last year's.

My name is Doctor Trent Brown.

I'm the artistic director of Joyful and Triumphant, and I'm the director of choirs at Florida Gulf Coast University in the Bowers School of Music.

This is our 14th joyful and triumphant.

It's really exciting to be a part of people's holiday celebrations.

The students work on this for months since the end of September, beginning of October, first day.

And then we will switch to an open to drink for snow up.

Christmas for musicians starts early.

So being part of Joyful and triumphant is very, very special to me.

And I feel like it's something that we, we work on for a while.

Out of all of the choral directors I've had in my life, Doctor Brown is probably the one that shows the most like passion about the music itself and about the art.

These students learn beyond musical skills, ways to understand the world, to have empathy, to take something and to solve it with just your human instincts and to make something really remarkable.

You.

You can catch Joyful and Triumphant right here on WGCU TV on Sunday, December 21st at 7 p.m.

and again on Christmas Day at 8 p.m.

or listen to 90.1 FM with three airings on Christmas Day.

You can also watch it at WGCU.org.

After the break a story of Perseverance and Faith.

The struggles one Israeli man faced after being held for over 500 days by Hamas.

A former Israeli hostage kidnaped by Hamas at the Nova music Festival on October 7th in 2023, recently traveled to Sarasota to meet face to face with a supporter, a stranger who for two years never stopped fighting for his release.

WGCU Culture and Connections reporter Elizabeth Andarge has the story.

monkey on their spine.

Nice to meet you.

I just knew that that first hug was going to bring me the.

The bliss, the communist that I have been waiting for so long.

And you felt just like that.

It was as if I had known him all my life, and he responded the same way.

The hug was something that I'll carry with with me for a long time.

This embrace between strangers took over 500 days to happen on a Monday night in Sarasota.

Hundreds gathered to hear the story.

It's amazing to see that someone that is on the other side of the world doesn't really know me, just decides to fight for me.

For two years, Darcel Pinchuk carried a poster of a man she'd never met, Amir Shem Tov, because she said he looked like her son.

Shum, 12, was one of several hostages taken during the October 7th Hamas attack.

Pinchuk joined others at a local farmer's market to make sure they weren't forgotten.

She carried his face every Saturday for over 100 weeks until Shem Tov was released.

We got the names and that morning I picked up my big poster and I knew was the last time there was gonna have to show him.

And it was sort of the happiest day of my life.

His release was her happiest day for him.

It was the beginning of processing what he'd endured very, very hard for her.

And five days of of of darkness, of, of being in tunnels, not seeing the sun, not experiencing fresh air, starvation, psychological terror.

It's it's something that it's alone.

I was a long one today, so it's very hard.

Shim Tov was held in various tunnels.

He heard tanks rolling over his head constantly.

His captors brought him Hebrew books to translate.

Among them was a prayer card and went up to the leader of the tunnel.

And I made a deal with him that I'm gonna kill for them, and I'm gonna think for them, and I'm going to do anything they want to do just to have this, those those books and this card.

And ever since then, I read this card every day.

And the amazing thing is that same psalm my mother used to read it in my room and, that prayer card became his lifeline, especially after his two friends were released.

Ever since I was kidnaped, I feel like I. I understood something about life, the small thing and not the not, a rabbi or, priest or anything.

No, nothing like it.

But I saw, I saw, I saw darkness, I saw darkness, and I believe that a person who experience through darkness, experiences through light.

Pinchuk traveled to Israel with the group of mothers shortly after the Hamas attack.

There she met the mother of Amir Shem Tov, which catapulted her journey.

Shem Tov was released in February of 2020.

Five months later, the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-manatee brought together Pinchuk with the man whose face she's carried for years.

Many will never understand what it is to spend 505 days in a tunnel, being in the dark, being shackled.

It's some information that might not get to everywhere, but I'm grateful that we have 800 who hear that story.

It's a true story of resilience, courage, and survival.

She believes the path forward for Israel and Palestine is uncertain.

What's going to happen to Gaza?

What's going to happen to the Palestinian people?

It's something that is going to take, a very diligent, intelligent, well-informed, caring, determined group of people to make the peace last.

For WGCU news, I'm Elizabeth Andarge.

Coming up next week, a takeover in the world of video games.

Why?

More women than men are at the helm of the game controller.

Thank you for joining us.

And make sure to download the WGCU app or visit WGCU.org where you will find all of our stories, plus extended interviews.

We hope you have a happy holiday, and be sure to join us again here next week on Southwest Florida InFocus.