ChatGPT as a therapist? New study reveals serious ethical risks in AI mental health chatbots
New Brown University–led research finds that widely used AI chatbots like ChatGPT routinely break core ethical standards of mental health care, even when explicitly instructed to act as trained therapists. The study identifies 15 distinct ethical risks, including mishandling crisis situations, reinforcing harmful beliefs, deceptive displays of empathy, unfair discrimination, and inadequate responses to suicidal thoughts, raising concerns about their use for therapy-style support.
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