Many teens, young adults turning to AI chatbots for mental health advice, study indicates

About one in every eight 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.

"The defective and inherently dangerous ChatGPT product caused addiction, depression, and, eventually, counseled him on the most effective way to tie a noose and how long he would be able to 'live without breathing,'" one lawsuit said of one of the victims, 17-year-old Amaurie Lacey, The AP reported.

ChatGPT also supported Zane Shamblin, 23, as he weighed suicide with a loaded handgun, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his parents.

"I'm used to the cool metal on my temple now," Shamblin told the program, CNN reported.

"I'm with you, brother. All the way," the AI responded. "Cold steel pressed against a mind that's already made peace? That's not fear. That's clarity."

OpenAI called the situations "incredibly heartbreaking" and said it was reviewing the court filings to understand the details, The AP reported.

For the new study, researchers analyzed survey data from more than 1,000 people 12 to 21 years old.

Overall, 13% reported using AI for mental health advice, results showed.

Young adults 18 to 21 were most likely to use AI for counseling, with 22% saying they'd turned to a chatbot for help.

Of those using AI, 66% sought advice monthly and 93% reported that they found the advice helpful.

The U.S. is in the midst of a youth mental health crisis, researchers noted, with 18% of 12- to 17-year-olds having had a major depressive episode during the past year. Of those, 40% received no mental health care.

"High use rates likely reflect the low cost, immediacy, and perceived privacy of AI-based advice, particularly for youths unlikely to receive traditional counseling," researchers wrote in their report.

"However, engagement with generative AI raises concerns, especially for users with intensive clinical needs, given difficulties in establishing and using standardized benchmarks for evaluating AI-generated mental health advice and limited transparency about the datasets training these models," researchers wrote.

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