Use caution with AI therapy, experts say

As artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT have grown in popularity, some are turning to them for therapeutic purposes.

“It was probably about a year and a half ago that I started hearing rumblings of people using things like ChatGPT for mental health support,” said Lawrence Murphy with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association Technology and Innovative Solutions Chapter.

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Murphy says even recent updates to ChatGPT to better recognize suicidality and psychosis are not enough to make it safe. Roughly 1.2 million weekly usersc who talk to ChatGPT show signs of suicidal ideation, according to new data from OpenAI.

“The thing to understand about counselors and psychotherapists and our profession is that the absolute bedrock of it, the foundation of it is ethics and best practices,” he said. “These chatbots, these large language models, they have none.”

Watch the video above to learn more about why more people are turning to AI for mental health support.