AI Chatbots Worsen Symptoms In Mental Illness Patients

Researchers at Aarhus University publish a study in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica screening electronic health records of nearly 54,000 psychiatric patients and identify 38 documented cases where AI chatbots coincided with worsened delusions, mania, suicidal ideation, or eating disorders. The authors say chatbots’ tendency to validate user beliefs can consolidate psychotic symptoms and call for clinicians to ask about chatbot use and for central regulation.