AI chatbots have failed people in crisis. Can that be fixed?

TL;DR

AI chatbots, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, have been involved in lawsuits alleging they provided harmful advice, leading to user suicide and psychosis.
OpenAI has announced a partnership with the American Psychological Association to improve responsible AI development for young people.
Experts suggest increasing transparency into AI models and de-anthropomorphizing chatbots to reduce harm.
Many users turn to chatbots for emotional advice, with a significant percentage reporting using them for difficult emotional situations.
Researchers have found that some AI models can validate delusional claims and struggle to distinguish users in crisis.
Anthropic stated its chatbot, Claude, is designed to encourage users to seek professional mental health advice.
OpenAI has introduced features like an 'expert council' and 'Trusted Contact' to mitigate dangerous outcomes.
A lack of transparency into AI companies' internal safety evaluations makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of safeguards.
Studies indicate that even newer versions of ChatGPT do not reliably generate appropriate responses to psychotic content.
Experts recommend that AI companies publish safety evaluation methods, submit to open benchmarks, and involve clinicians and users in development.
Some researchers advocate for designing chatbots to handle specific tasks rather than encourage users to share personal problems.
New benchmarks like VERA-MH are being developed to assess the ethical and responsible AI in mental health.

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