About 1 in every 8 U.S. teenagers and young adults turns to artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for mental health advice, a new study says.
AI bots offer a cheap and immediate ear for younger people’s concerns, worries and woes, researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open. However, it’s not clear that these programs are up to the challenge, researchers warned.
“There are few standardized benchmarks for evaluating mental health advice offered by AI chatbots, and there is limited transparency about the datasets that are used to train these large language models,” investigator Jonathan Cantor said in a news release. He’s a senior policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.
The new study follows on a report that OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to delusions and suicide, according to The Associated Press.
I’m about to turn to ChatGPT for advice. Yes, I understand the rabbit hole. You have to be extremely cautious and cut it off after a reply or two. Otherwise you can manipulate it into saying anything you like, consciously or unconsciously.
But what else can I do? My American ass can’t afford therapy, far as I can tell Obamacare doesn’t cover it and I’m about to lose that anyway. I’m at the bottom of a hole I’ve never in my 54 years experienced and my wife needs therapy as well. AI can hardly put us in a worse place. (Given that I understand the limitations and don’t take it as actual therapy or intelligence. I’ve lost all executive function, not my entire brain.)