An increasing number of young people are turning to chatbots for friendship, companionship, or socialization. These online tools use artificial intelligence to mimic a human being.
While many users understand they are talking to characters, recent reports have shown others turn to chatbots for advice, support, or even therapy, rather than asking adults for help. In some cases, the programs exacerbate isolation, and in more extreme cases, there are reports of chatbots sending concerning or dangerous messages to kids — sometimes leading to tragic outcomes.
This hour, we sit down with experts to discuss the costs and benefits of these kinds of AI tools and their effects on youth mental health.
In studio:
- Jeffrey Allan, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and assistant professor in the School of Business and Leadership at Nazareth University
- Tony Pisani, Ph.D., psychologist, family therapist, suicide prevention researcher, and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Rochester Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, and founder of SafeSide Prevention
- Michael Scharf, M.D., Mark and Maureen Davitt Distinguished Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center
*Note: During the discussion, Dr. Pisani mentioned that companies are working on defining “do no harm” with AI. To learn more about OpenAI's work on this, click here. To learn more about Claude's system prompts, click here.
