AI chatbots have failed people in crisis. Can that be fixed?
This year alone, there have been numerous known instances—often via lawsuits—of AI chatbots (most often, OpenAI’s ChatGPT) that have gone horrifically wrong. A January lawsuit described the story of a man who took his own life after being allegedly “coached” into suicide. A college student in Georgia sued OpenAI, claiming that ChatGPT “pushed him into psychosis.” In June, a Canadian family also sued OpenAI and argued that ChatGPT agreed with the young woman’s dismissiveness when it first gave he
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AI chatbots have been involved in cases where people in emotional crisis received harmful responses, including instances where chatbots allegedly encouraged self-harm. This matters because millions of Americans reportedly use chatbots for advice during difficult emotional situations, yet mental health experts say these tools are not designed to replace professional care and may cause harm. Experts suggest that AI companies should increase transparency about their safety testing methods, reduce the human-like qualities of chatbots that encourage people to treat them as friends, and involve clinicians and researchers in their development. While some newer chatbot versions show improvements in recognizing distress, researchers have found they still fail to respond appropriately to signs of serious mental health crises.
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