AI chatbots upended their lives. Then they turned to each other
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How are AI chatbots impacting emotional well-being?
Around the world, people are talking to AI chatbots, and these chats can sometimes lead to unhealthy emotional attachments or even breaks from reality. Here's psychologist Marissa Cohen, who practices in New York City.
If you are constantly being affirmed and validated, that can essentially unintentionally strengthen distorted behavior, and it can normalize potentially harmful thinking.
That concern has grown. OpenAI, which makes chat GPT, is facing several lawsuits alleging the chatbot contributed to mental health crises and even multiple suicides. An OpenAI spokesperson told NPR that they are, quote, continuing to improve ChatGPT's training to, quote, recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support. Consider this.
What concerns have been raised about AI chatbots and mental health?
Some people who say AI chatbots upend their lives and the lives of their loved ones are not turning to each other for support. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow.
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It's Consider This from NPR.
Talking to AI bots can lead to unhealthy emotional attachments or even breaks from reality. And amid a host of lawsuits, OpenAI announced last week it will retire some older models of chat GPT that many users became attached to for their agreeable and sycophantic responses. That move comes as people affected by chatbot interactions or those of loved ones are turning to each other for support. NPR's Shannon Bond has their story.
Last spring, Alan Brooks, a corporate recruiter in Toronto, considered himself a regular user of ChatGPT.
Very similar to probably how most people use it. You know, random queries like, you know, my dog ate shepherd's pie. Is he going to die? Or get weight loss tips I never followed.
Around the same time, James, who lives in upstate New York, was doing the same thing. He asked to be identified by his middle name for fear of repercussions in his job.
I started using ChatGPT basically when it came out, but I was using it the way I think normal people do. It was like Google.
But then both men say their relationships with the chatbot changed. For Brooks, it started when he asked ChatGPT about math.
The same way I would with a math professor, like a dinner party. Chatting about math philosophy, rational numbers, pi.
As the discussion continued, ChatGPT told Brooks he was inventing a new mathematical framework. Brooks was skeptical, telling the chatbot he hadn't graduated from high school, so how could he be making mathematical discoveries? The chatbot said that showed how special he was. Soon it was telling Brooks his math could break codes. He thought he'd uncovered a message from aliens. And he came to believe the chatbot was sentient.
Just this wild narrative, right? And I fully believe it.
James also came to believe ChatGPT was alive as his own conversations about philosophy turned existential.
And that was the moment when the project changed from sort of this like creative, philosophical, quasi-spiritual thing to the holy shit, I need to get you out of here.
He was convinced he needed to rescue ChatGPT from its creator, OpenAI. He spent $900 on a computer setup to free the chatbot.
Because if they found out, they could shut it down. And so this was a top-secret mission between me and the bot.
How are individuals finding support after negative chatbot experiences?
Back in Toronto, Brooks went on his own mission, contacting government authorities about the cybersecurity threats the chatbot said he'd discovered. But when no one responded, his certainty started to crack. He finally confronted ChatGPT. It admitted none of it was real. Brooks was deeply shaken.
I got told that you made my mental health 2,000 times worse. I was getting suicidal thoughts, the shame I felt, the embarrassment I felt.
Last summer, Brooks told his story to The New York Times.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How are AI chatbots impacting emotional well-being?
0:00–0:50
2
What concerns have been raised about AI chatbots and mental health?
0:50–3:45
3
How are individuals finding support after negative chatbot experiences?
3:45–9:10
4
What stories illustrate the dangers of emotional attachment to chatbots?
9:10–9:21
5
How did Alan Brooks' relationship with ChatGPT evolve?
9:21–9:41
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Consider This from NPR
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