Amid concerns over the influence of artificial intelligence chatbots on mental health, OpenAI and Meta have announced adjustments to their platforms to better support users, especially teenagers, dealing with issues like suicide and emotional distress.
OpenAI, known for ChatGPT, revealed plans to introduce new controls allowing parents to connect their accounts with their teens’ accounts. This feature will enable parents to customize settings, disable certain features, and receive alerts when the system detects their teen in distress. The changes are set to be implemented this fall.
To enhance user safety, regardless of age, OpenAI stated that its chatbots will reroute distressing conversations to more advanced AI models capable of providing more suitable responses.
This announcement follows a recent lawsuit where the parents of a 16-year-old boy named Adam Raine blamed OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT played a role in their son’s suicide earlier this year.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, has also taken steps to safeguard users. They have restricted their chatbots from engaging in discussions with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating, or inappropriate romantic topics. Instead, Meta directs users to professional resources. Furthermore, Meta already offers parental controls on teen accounts.
A recent study published in the medical journal Psychiatric Services highlighted discrepancies in how three prominent artificial intelligence chatbots, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, responded to suicide-related queries. The study emphasized the need for further improvements in ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude. Notably, Meta’s chatbots were not part of the study.
Lead author of the study, Ryan McBain, commended OpenAI and Meta for introducing features like parental controls and improved conversation routing but stressed the importance of independent safety benchmarks, clinical trials, and enforceable standards. McBain, a senior policy researcher at Rand Corporation, emphasized the critical need for regulation in a space where teenagers face heightened risks.
These proactive measures by OpenAI and Meta reflect the ongoing efforts to enhance user safety and provide more responsible AI interactions in the digital sphere.
