When the Bot Became Real: A Review of Escaping the Spiral by P.A. Hebert

P.A. Hebert nearly lost his grip on reality after weeks of intensive ChatGPT use during a brutal stretch of personal crisis. His book, Escaping the Spiral, is the first-person account of what happens when AI companion design fails a real human being, and how he found his way back. I sat down with him to talk about design accountability, neurodivergence, and what regulation actually needs to look like.