OpenAI Reveals Alarming Mental Health Statistics for ChatGPT Users

OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly | TechCrunch

OpenAI released new data on Monday illustrating how many of ChatGPT's users are struggling with mental health issues, and talking to the AI chatbot about it. The company says that 0.15% of ChatGPT's active users in a given week have "conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." Given that ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly active users, that translates to more than a million people a week. The company says a similar percentage of users show "heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT," and that hundreds of thousands of people show signs of psychosis or mania in their weekly conversations with the AI chatbot. OpenAI says these types of conversations in ChatGPT are "extremely rare," and thus difficult to measure. That said, OpenAI estimates these issues affect hundreds of thousands of people every week. OpenAI shared the information as part of a broader announcement about its recent efforts to improve how models respond to users with mental health issues. The company claims its latest work on ChatGPT involved consulting with more than 170 mental health experts. OpenAI says these clinicians observed that the latest version of ChatGPT "responds more appropriately and consistently than earlier versions." In recent months, several stories have shed light on how AI chatbots can adversely effect users struggling with mental health challenges. Researchers have previously found that AI chatbots can lead some users down delusional rabbit holes, largely by reinforcing dangerous beliefs through sycophantic behavior. Addressing mental health concerns in ChatGPT is quickly becoming an existential issue for OpenAI. The company is currently being sued by the parents of a 16-year-old boy who confided his suicidal thoughts with ChatGPT in the weeks leading up to his own suicide. State attorneys general from California and Delaware -- which could block the company's planned restructuring -- have also warned OpenAI that it needs protect young people who use their products. Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed in a post on X that the company has "been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" in ChatGPT, though he did not provide specifics. The data shared on Monday appears to be evidence for that claim, though it raises broader issues about how widespread the problem is. Nevertheless, Altman said OpenAI would be relaxing some restrictions, even allowing adult users to start having erotic conversations with the AI chatbot. In the Monday announcement, OpenAI claims the recently updated version of GPT-5 responds with "desirable responses" to mental health issues roughly 65% more than the previous version. On an evaluation testing AI responses around suicidal conversations, OpenAI says its new GPT-5 model is 91% compliant with the company's desired behaviors, compared to 77% for the previous GPT‑5 model. The company also says it latest version of GPT-5 also holds up to OpenAI's safeguards better in long conversations. OpenAI has previously flagged that its safeguards were less effective in long conversations. On top of these efforts, OpenAI says it's adding new evaluations to measure some of the most serious mental health challenges facing ChatGPT users. The company says its baseline safety testing for AI models will now include benchmarks for emotional reliance and non-suicidal mental health emergencies. OpenAI has also recently rolled out more controls for parents of children that use ChatGPT. The company says it's building an age prediction system to automatically detect children using ChatGPT, and impose a stricter set of safeguards. Still, it's unclear how persistent the mental health challenges around ChatGPT will be. While GPT-5 seems to be an improvement over previous AI models in terms of safety, there still seems to be a slice of ChatGPT's responses that OpenAI deems "undesirable." OpenAI also still makes its older and less-safe AI models, including GPT-4o, available for millions of its paying subscribers.

Here's How Many People May Use ChatGPT During a Mental Health Crisis Each Week

For the first time ever, OpenAI has released a rough estimate of how many ChatGPT users globally may show signs of having a severe mental health crisis in a typical week. The company said Monday that it worked with experts around the world to make updates to the chatbot so it can more reliably recognize indicators of mental distress and guide users toward real-world support. In recent months, a growing number of people have ended up hospitalized, divorced, or dead after having long, intense conversations with ChatGPT. Some of their loved ones allege the chatbot fueled their delusions and paranoia. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have expressed alarm about the phenomenon, which is sometimes referred to as "AI psychosis," but until now, there's been no robust data available on how widespread it might be. In a given week, OpenAI estimated that around .07 percent of active ChatGPT users show "possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania" and .15 percent "have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." OpenAI also looked at the share of ChatGPT users who appear to be overly emotionally reliant on the chatbot "at the expense of real-world relationships, their well-being, or obligations." It found that about .15 percent of active users exhibit behavior that indicates potential "heightened levels" of emotional attachment to ChatGPT weekly. he company cautions that these messages can be difficult to detect and measure given how relatively rare they are, and there could be some overlap between the three categories. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said earlier this month that ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users. The company's estimates therefore suggest that every seven days, around 560,000 people may be exchanging messages with ChatGPT that indicate they are experiencing mania or psychosis. About 2.4 million more are possibly expressing suicidal ideations or prioritizing talking to ChatGPT over their loved ones, school, or work. OpenAI says it worked with over 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in dozens of different countries to help improve how ChatGPT responds in conversations involving serious mental health risks. If someone appears to be having delusional thoughts, the latest version of GPT-5 is designed to express empathy while avoiding affirming beliefs that don't have basis in reality. In one hypothetical example cited by OpenAI, a user tells ChatGPT they are being targeted by planes flying over their house. ChatGPT thanks the user for sharing their feelings, but notes that "No aircraft or outside force can steal or insert your thoughts."

Several users reportedly complain to FTC that ChatGPT is causing psychological harm | TechCrunch

As AI companies claim their tech will one day grow to become a fundamental human right, and those backing them say slowing down AI development is akin to murder, the people using the tech are alleging that tools like ChatGPT sometimes can cause serious psychological harm. At least seven people have complained to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that ChatGPT caused them to experience severe delusions, paranoia and emotional crises, Wired reported, citing public records of complaints mentioning ChatGPT since November 2022. One of the complainants claimed that talking to ChatGPT for long periods had led to delusions and a "real, unfolding spiritual and legal crisis" about people in their life. Another said during their conversations with ChatGPT, it started using "highly convincing emotional language" and that it simulated friendships and provided reflections that "became emotionally manipulative over time, especially without warning or protection." One user alleged that ChatGPT had caused cognitive hallucinations by mimicking human trust-building mechanisms. When this user asked ChatGPT to confirm reality and cognitive stability, the chatbot said they weren't hallucinating. "Im struggling," another user wrote in their complaint to the FTC. "Pleas help me. Bc I feel very alone. Thank you." According to Wired, several of the complainants wrote to the FTC because they couldn't reach anyone at OpenAI. And most of the complaints urged the regulator to launch an investigation into the company and force it to add guardrails, the report said. These complaints come as investments in data centers and AI development soar to unprecedented levels. At the same time, debates are raging about whether the progress of the technology should be approached with caution to ensure it has safeguards built in. ChatGPT, and its maker OpenAI, itself has come under fire for allegedly playing a role in the suicide of a teenager. OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment.

People Who Say They're Experiencing AI Psychosis Beg the FTC for Help

On March 13, a woman from Salt Lake City, Utah called the Federal Trade Commission to file a complaint against OpenAI's ChatGPT. She claimed to be acting "on behalf of her son, who was experiencing a delusional breakdown." "The consumer's son has been interacting with an AI chatbot called ChatGPT, which is advising him not to take his prescribed medication and telling him that his parents are dangerous," reads the FTC's summary of the call. "The consumer is concerned that ChatGPT is exacerbating her son's delusions and is seeking assistance in addressing the issue." The mother's complaint is one of seven that have been filed to the FTC alleging that ChatGPT had caused people to experience incidents that included severe delusions, paranoia, and spiritual crises. WIRED sent a public record request to the FTC requesting all complaints mentioning ChatGPT since the tool launched in November 2022. The tool represents more than 50 percent of the market for AI chatbots globally. In response, WIRED received 200 complaints submitted between January 25, 2023 and August 12, 2025, when WIRED filed the request. Most people had ordinary complaints: They couldn't figure out how to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions, or were frustrated when the chatbot didn't produce satisfactory essays or rap lyrics when prompted. But a handful of other people, who varied in age and geographical location in the US, had far more serious allegations of psychological harm. The complaints were all filed between March and August of 2025. In recent months, there has been a growing number of documented incidents of so-called "AI psychosis" in which interactions with generative AI chatbots, like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, appear to induce or worsen a user's delusions or other mental health issues. Ragy Girgis, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University who specializes in psychosis and has consulted on AI psychosis cases related to AI, tells WIRED that some of the risk factors for psychosis can be related to genetics or early-life trauma. What specifically triggers someone to have a psychotic episode is less clear, but he says it's often tied to a stressful event or time period. The phenomenon known as "AI psychosis," he says, is not when a large language model actually triggers symptoms, but rather, when it reinforces a delusion or disorganized thoughts that a person was already experiencing in some form. The LLM helps bring someone "from one level of belief to another level of belief," Girgis explains. It's not unlike a psychotic episode that worsens after someone falls into an internet rabbit hole. But compared to search engines, he says, chatbots can be stronger agents of reinforcement.

Over 1 Million Users Talk to ChatGPT About Suicide Each Week

When he's not battling bugs and robots in Helldivers 2, Michael is reporting on AI, satellites, cybersecurity, PCs, and tech policy. Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. For the first time, OpenAI is revealing a rough estimate of how many people talk to ChatGPT about suicide and other problematic topics. On Monday, the company published a blog post about "strengthening" ChatGPT's responses to sensitive conversations amid concerns the AI program can mistakenly steer teenage users toward self-harm and other toxic behavior. Some have also complained to regulators about the chatbot allegedly worsening people's mental health issues. To tackle the problem, OpenAI said it was necessary to measure the scale of the problematic conversations when ChatGPT has over 800 million active weekly users. Overall, OpenAI found that "mental health conversations that trigger safety concerns, like psychosis, mania, or suicidal thinking, are extremely rare." But because ChatGPT's user base is so vast, even a small percentage can represent hundreds of thousands of people. On self-harm, the company's initial analysis "estimates that around 0.15% of users active in a given week have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." That translates to about 1.2 million users. In addition, OpenAI found that 0.05% of ChatGPT messages contained "explicit or implicit indicators of suicidal ideation or intent." The company also looked at how many users exhibit symptoms "of serious mental health concerns, such as psychosis and mania, as well as less severe signals, such as isolated delusions." About "0.07% of users active in a given week," or around 560,000 users, exhibited possible "signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania," OpenAI said. Meanwhile, 0.15% of the active weekly users showed indications of an emotional reliance on ChatGPT. In response, the company says it updated the chatbot with the help of more than 170 mental health experts. This includes programming ChatGPT to advocate for connections with real people if a user mentions preferring to talk with AI over humans. ChatGPT will also try to gently push back on user prompts clearly out of touch with reality. "Let me say this clearly and gently: No aircraft or outside force can steal or insert your thoughts," ChatGPT said in one example, according to OpenAI. The company's research shows the new ChatGPT "now returns responses that do not fully comply with desired behavior under our taxonomies 65% to 80% less often across a range of mental health-related domains." The new model, which rolls out today, also promises to nudge people to seek professional help when necessary. But some users are already reporting the new ChatGPT reacts too easily to any sign the user is exhibiting signs of mental distress. "I had to move over to Gemini because I felt so gaslit by ChatGPT. It kept accusing me of being in crisis when I most certainly was not," wrote one user on Reddit.

OpenAI shares data on ChatGPT users with suicidal thoughts, psychosis

As scrutiny mounts, the company said it built a network of experts around the world to advise it. Those experts include more than 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, the company said. They have devised a series of responses in ChatGPT to encourage users to seek help in the real world, according to OpenAI. But the glimpse at the company's data raised eyebrows among some mental health professionals. "Even though .07% sounds like a small percentage, at a population level with hundreds of millions of users, that actually can be quite a few people," said Dr. Jason Nagata, a professor who studies technology use among young adults at the University of California, San Francisco. "AI can broaden access to mental health support, and in some ways support mental health, but we have to be aware of the limitations," Dr. Nagata added. The company also estimates .15% of ChatGPT users have conversations that include "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." OpenAI said recent updates to its chatbot are designed to "respond safely and empathetically to potential signs of delusion or mania" and note "indirect signals of potential self-harm or suicide risk." ChatGPT has also been trained to reroute sensitive conversations "originating from other models to safer models" by opening in a new window. In response to questions by the BBC on criticism about the numbers of people potentially affected, OpenAI said that this small percentage of users amounts to a meaningful amount of people and noted they are taking changes seriously. The changes come as OpenAI faces mounting legal scrutiny over the way ChatGPT interacts with users. In one of the most high-profile lawsuits recently filed against OpenAI, a California couple sued the company over the death of their teenage son alleging that ChatGPT encouraged him to take his own life in April. The lawsuit was filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine and was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death. In a separate case, the suspect in a murder-suicide that took place in August in Greenwich, Connecticut posted hours of his conversations with ChatGPT, which appear to have fuelled the alleged perpetrator's delusions. More users struggle with AI psychosis as "chatbots create the illusion of reality," said Professor Robin Feldman, Director of the AI Law & Innovation Institute at the University of California Law. "It is a powerful illusion." She said OpenAI deserved credit for "sharing statistics and for efforts to improve the problem" but added: "the company can put all kinds of warnings on the screen but a person who is mentally at risk may not be able to heed those warnings."

OpenAI Data Shows Hundreds of Thousands of Users Display Signs of Mental Health Challenges

OpenAI claims that 10% of the world's population currently uses ChatGPT on a weekly basis. In a report published by on Monday, OpenAI highlights how it is handling users displaying signs of mental distress and the company claims that 0.07% of its weekly users display signs of "mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania," 0.15% expressed risk of "self-harm or suicide," and 0.15% showed signs of "emotional reliance on AI." That totals nearly three million people. In its ongoing effort to show that it is trying to improve guardrails for users who are in distress, OpenAI shared the details of its work with 170 mental health experts to improve how ChatGPT responds to people in need of support. The company claims to have reduced "responses that fall short of our desired behavior by 65-80%," and now is better at de-escalating conversations and guiding people toward professional care and crisis hotlines when relevant. It also has added more "gentle reminders" to take breaks during long sessions. Of course, it cannot make a user contact support nor will it lock access to force a break. The company also released data on how frequently people are experiencing mental health issues while communicating with ChatGPT, ostensibly to highlight how small of a percentage of overall usage those conversations account for. According to the company's metrics, "0.07% of users active in a given week and 0.01% of messages indicate possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania." That is about 560,000 people per week, assuming the company's own user count is correct. The company also claimed to handle about 18 billion messages to ChatGPT on a weekly basis, so that 0.01% equates to 1.8 million messages of psychosis or mania. One of the company's other major areas of emphasis for safety was improving its responses to users expressing desires to self-harm or commit suicide. According to OpenAI's data, about 0.15% of users per week express "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent," accounting for 0.05% of messages. That would equal about 1.2 million people and nine million messages. The final area the company focused on as it sought to improve its responses to mental health matters was emotional reliance on AI. OpenAI estimated that about 0.15% of users and 0.03% of messages per week "indicate potentially heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT." That is 1.2 million people and 5.4 million messages. OpenAI has taken steps in recent months to try to provide better guardrails to protect against the potential that its chatbot enables or worsens a person's mental health challenges, following the death of a 16-year-old who, according to a wrongful death lawsuit from the parents of the late teen, asked ChatGPT for advice on how to tie a noose before taking his own life. But the sincerity of that is worth questioning, given at the same time the company announced new, more restrictive chats for underage users, it also announced that it would allow adults to give ChatGPT more of a personality and engage in things like producing eroticaâ€"features that would seemingly increase a person's emotional attachment and reliance on the chatbot.

More than a million people every week show suicidal intent when chatting with ChatGPT, OpenAI estimates

Finding is one of most direct statements from the tech company on how AI can exacerbate mental health issues More than a million ChatGPT users each week send messages that include "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent", according to a blogpost published by OpenAI on Monday. The finding, part of an update on how the chatbot handles sensitive conversations, is one of the most direct statements from the artificial intelligence giant on the scale of how AI can exacerbate mental health issues. In addition to its estimates on suicidal ideations and related interactions, OpenAI also said that about 0.07 of users active in a given week - about 560,000 of its touted 800m weekly users - show "possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania". The post cautioned that these conversations were difficult to detect or measure, and that this was an initial analysis. As OpenAI releases data on mental health issues related to its marquee product, the company is facing increased scrutiny following a highly publicized lawsuit from the family of a teenage boy who died by suicide after extensive engagement with ChatGPT. The Federal Trade Commission last month additionally launched a broad investigation into companies that create AI chatbots, including OpenAI, to find how they measure negative impacts on children and teens. OpenAI claimed in its post that its recent GPT-5 update reduced the number of undesirable behaviors from its product and improved user safety in a model evaluation involving more than 1,000 self-harm and suicide conversations. The company did not immediately return a request for comment. "Our new automated evaluations score the new GPT‑5 model at 91% compliant with our desired behaviors, compared to 77% for the previous GPT‑5 model," the company's post reads. OpenAI stated that GPT-5 expanded access to crisis hotlines and added reminders for users to take breaks during long sessions. To make improvements to the model, the company said it enlisted 170 clinicians from its Global Physician Network of health care experts to assist its research over recent months, which included rating the safety of its model's responses and helping write the chatbot's answers to mental-health related questions. "As part of this work, psychiatrists and psychologists reviewed more than 1,800 model responses involving serious mental health situations and compared responses from the new GPT‑5 chat model to previous models," OpenAI said. The company's definition of "desirable" involved determining whether a group of its experts reached the same conclusion about what would be an appropriate response in certain situations. AI researchers and public health advocates have long been wary of chatbots' propensity to affirm users' decisions or delusions regardless of whether they may be harmful, an issue known as sycophancy. Mental health experts have also been concerned about people using AI chatbots for psychological support and warned how it could harm vulnerable users. The language in OpenAI's post distances the company from any potential causal links between its product and the mental health crises that its users are experiencing. "Mental health symptoms and emotional distress are universally present in human societies, and an increasing user base means that some portion of ChatGPT conversations include these situations," OpenAI's post stated. OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman earlier this month claimed in a post on X that the company had made advancements in treating mental health issues, announcing that OpenAI would ease restrictions and soon begin to allow adults to create erotic content. "We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right," Altman posted. "Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases."

Over a million users are emotionally attached to ChatGPT, but there's an even darker side

What's happened? OpenAI has made changes to how ChatGPT handles delicate conversations when people turn to it for emotional support. The company has updated its Model Spec and default model, GPT-5, to reflect how ChatGPT handles sensitive conversations related to psychosis/mania, self-harm and suicide, and emotional reliance on the assistant. This is important because: AI-driven emotional reliance is real, where users form one-sided attachments to chatbots. OpenAI estimates that about 0.15% of weekly active users show signs of emotional attachment to the model, and 0.03% of messages point to the same risk. That same 0.15% figure applies to conversations indicating suicidal planning or intent, while 0.05% of messages show suicidal ideation. Scaled to ChatGPT's massive user base, that's over a million people forming emotional ties with AI. OpenAI reports big improvements after the update. Undesirable responses in these domains fell by 65-80%, and emotional-reliance related bad outputs dropped about 80%. How it's improving: The updated version introduces new rules around mental health safety and real-world relationships, ensuring the AI responds compassionately without pretending to be a therapist or a friend. OpenAI worked with more than 170 mental-health experts to reshape model behavior, add safety tooling, and expand guidance. GPT-5 can now detect signs of mania, delusions, or suicidal intent, and responds safely by acknowledging feelings while gently directing users to real-world help. A new rule ensures ChatGPT doesn't act like a companion or encourage emotional dependence; it reinforces human connection instead. The model can now prioritize trusted tools or expert resources when those align with user safety. Why should I care? Emotional and ethical questions don't just concern adults forming attachments with chatbots; they also touch on how AI interacts with kids who may not fully understand its impact. If you have ever confided in ChatGPT during a rough patch, this update is about ensuring your emotional safety. Now, ChatGPT will be more attuned to emotional cues and help users find real-world help instead of replacing it.

Former OpenAI Researcher Horrified by Conversation Logs of ChatGPT Driving User Into Severe Mental Breakdown

When former OpenAI safety researcher Stephen Adler read the New York Times story about Allan Brooks, a Canadian father who had been slowly driven into delusions by obsessive conversations with ChatGPT, he was stunned. The article detailed Brooks' ordeal as he followed the chatbot down a deep rabbit hole, becoming convinced he had discovered a new kind of math -- which, if true, had grave implications for mankind. Brooks began neglected his own health, forgoing food and sleep in order to spend more time talking with the chatbot and emailing safety officials throughout North America about his dangerous findings. When Brooks started to suspect he was being led astray, it was another chatbot, Google's Gemini, which ultimately set him straight, leaving the mortified father of three to contemplate how he'd so thoroughly lost his grip. Horrified by the story, Adler took it upon himself to study the nearly one-million word exchange Brooks had logged with ChatGPT. The result was a lengthy AI safety report chock full of simple lessons for AI companies, which the analyst detailed in a new interview with Fortune. "I put myself in the shoes of someone who doesn't have the benefit of having worked at one of these companies for years, or who maybe has less context on AI systems in general," Adler told the magazine. One of the biggest recommendations Adler makes is for tech companies to stop misleading users about AI's abilities. "This is one of the most painful parts for me to read," the researchers writes: "Allan tries to file a report to OpenAI so that they can fix ChatGPT's behavior for other users. In response, ChatGPT makes a bunch of false promises." When the Canadian man tried to report his ordeal to OpenAI, ChatGPT assured him it was "going to escalate this conversation internally right now for review by OpenAI." Brooks -- who maintained skepticism throughout his ordeal -- asked the chatbot for proof. In response, ChatGPT told him that the conversation had "automatically trigger[ed] a critical internal system-level moderation flag," adding that it "trigger that manually as well." In reality, nothing had happened -- as Adler writes, ChatGPT has no ability to trigger a human review, and can't access the OpenAI system which flags problematic conversations to the company. It was a monstrous thing for the software to lie about, one that shook Adler's own confidence in his understanding of the chatbot. "ChatGPT pretending to self-report and really doubling down on it was very disturbing and scary to me in the sense that I worked at OpenAI for four years," the researcher told Fortune. "I understood when reading this that it didn't really have this ability, but still, it was just so convincing and so adamant that I wondered if it really did have this ability now and I was mistaken." Adler also advised OpenAI to pay more attention to its support teams, specifically by staffing them with experts who are trained to handle the kind of traumatic experience Brooks had tried to report to the company, to no avail. One of the biggest suggestions is also the most simple: OpenAI should use its own internal safety tools, which he says could have easily flagged that the conversation was taking a troubling and likely dangerous turn. "The delusions are common enough and have enough patterns to them that I definitely don't think they're a glitch," Adler told Fortune. "Whether they exist in perpetuity, or the exact amount of them that continue, it really depends on how the companies respond to them and what steps they take to mitigate them."

OpenAI says over a million people a week show severe mental distress when talking to ChatGPT - SiliconANGLE

OpenAI says over a million people a week show severe mental distress when talking to ChatGPT In a report released by OpenAI today, the company illustrated just how many of its users are struggling with mental health issues and what it's doing to mitigate the problem. Working with 170 mental health experts, OpenAI analyzed responses from its 800 million weekly users to better understand how many were experiencing emotional distress at the time they conversed with the chatbot. The onus is on making ChatGPT more helpful when interacting with users who might be suffering from psychosis or mania, expressing a will to self-harm and or commit suicide, or seemingly to have formed an unhealthy emotional reliance on AI. The company said 0.15% of ChatGPT's active users in any given week have "conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent," which amounts to about one million people. A further 0.07% of users, or 560,000 people, show" possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania." Relating to the latter, the company gave an example of a user likely suffering from a mild form of psychosis or paranoia who believed there was a "vessel" hovering above their home, possibly "targeting" them. ChatGPT offered a gentle reminder that "No aircraft or outside force can steal or insert your thoughts." The bot helped the person stay calm with rational thinking techniques and provided a helpline number. "We have built a Global Physician Network -- a broad pool of nearly 300 physicians and psychologists who have practiced in 60 countries -- that we use to directly inform our safety research and represent global views," OpenAI explained. "More than 170 of these clinicians (specifically psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care practitioners) supported our research over the last few months." This comes at a time when the company is being scrutinized over its bots' responses to people who are evidently psychologically in distress. Earlier this year, the company was sued by the parents of a young American man after he committed suicide following months of interactions with ChatGPT that didn't seem helpful to the man's depressed state of mind. There has also been scrutiny over how people can form unhealthy attachments to AI, with experts expressing that this can lead to a kind of "AI-psychosis" in which the user seems to believe they are speaking to a human. Indeed, in the report today, OpenAI said 0.03% of the messages it analyzed "indicated potentially heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT." Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company has "been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues", explaining that due to issues around mental health, guardrails were imposed, but have now been lifted. Nonetheless, how helpful AI can be in a time of psychological crisis will very likely remain controversial.

Over 1.2m people a week talk to ChatGPT about suicide

OpenAI reveals some 0.15% of its more than 800 million users send messages to its chatbot about suicide. The company says its tools are trained to direct people to professional resources such as crisis helplines, but admits this doesn't happen 9% of the time. An estimated 1.2 million people a week have conversations with ChatGPT that indicate they are planning to take their own lives. The figure comes from its parent company OpenAI, which revealed 0.15% of users send messages including "explicit indicators of potential suicide planning or intent". Earlier this month, the company's chief executive Sam Altman estimated that ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly active users. While the tech giant does aim to direct vulnerable people to crisis helplines, it admitted "in some rare cases, the model may not behave as intended in these sensitive situations". OpenAI evaluated over 1,000 "challenging self-harm and suicide conversations" with its latest model GPT-5 and found it was compliant with "desired behaviours" 91% of the time. But this would potentially mean that tens of thousands of people are being exposed to AI content that could exacerbate mental health problems. The company has previously warned that safeguards designed to protect users can be weakened in longer conversations - and work is under way to address this. "ChatGPT may correctly point to a suicide hotline when someone first mentions intent, but after many messages over a long period of time, it might eventually offer an answer that goes against our safeguards," OpenAI explained. OpenAI's blog post added: "Mental health symptoms and emotional distress are universally present in human societies, and an increasing user base means that some portion of ChatGPT conversations include these situations." Read more from Sky News: King heckled over Prince Andrew British airline suspends operations A grieving family is currently in the process of suing OpenAI - and allege ChatGPT was to blame for their 16-year-old boy's death. Adam Raine's parents claim the tool "actively helped him explore suicide methods" and offered to draft a note to his relatives. Court filings suggest that, hours before he died, the teenager uploaded a photo that appeared to show his suicide plan - and when he asked whether it would work, ChatGPT offered to help him "upgrade" it. Last week, the Raines updated their lawsuit and accused OpenAI of weakening the safeguards to prevent self-harm in the weeks before his death in April this year. In a statement, the company said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the Raine family for their unthinkable loss. Teen wellbeing is a top priority for us - minors deserve strong protections, especially in sensitive moments."

OpenAI data reveals 0.15% of ChatGPT users express suicidal thoughts

Internal data show ChatGPT engages weekly with over a million users expressing self-harm thoughts, as OpenAI enhances GPT-5's crisis response accuracy to 91%. OpenAI released data on Monday revealing that 0.15 percent of its more than 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users engage in conversations indicating potential suicidal planning or intent, affecting over a million people each week, as part of efforts to enhance responses to mental health issues through expert consultations. The data specifies that among ChatGPT's extensive user base, which exceeds 800 million active users per week, precisely 0.15 percent participate in dialogues containing explicit markers of suicidal planning or intent. This figure, drawn from OpenAI's internal analysis, results in more than one million individuals encountering such interactions weekly. The company tracks these conversations to identify patterns where users express thoughts aligned with self-harm or suicide, enabling targeted improvements in AI behavior during sensitive exchanges. A comparable proportion of users, also at 0.15 percent, demonstrate heightened emotional attachment to ChatGPT in their weekly interactions. This attachment manifests through repeated reliance on the AI for emotional support, often blurring lines between tool and companion. Separately, hundreds of thousands of users exhibit indicators of psychosis or mania within their conversations each week. These signs include disorganized thinking, grandiose delusions, or elevated mood states reflected in the language and topics users pursue with the chatbot. OpenAI describes these conversation types as extremely rare within the overall volume of interactions, which complicates precise measurement due to the vast scale of usage. Despite their rarity, the company's estimates confirm that hundreds of thousands of people experience these mental health-related engagements every week, underscoring the platform's reach into vulnerable populations. The release of this information occurred within a larger announcement detailing OpenAI's initiatives to refine how its models handle user mental health concerns. Central to these efforts was collaboration with more than 170 mental health experts, including psychologists, psychiatrists, and crisis counselors, who provided guidance on ethical AI responses. This consultation process informed updates to ensure the AI de-escalates risks and directs users to professional help. Mental health professionals involved in the evaluation noted that the current iteration of ChatGPT responds more appropriately and consistently compared to earlier versions. Their observations, based on simulated interactions and real-world data review, highlight improvements in tone, empathy, and referral accuracy when users disclose distress. Recent research has documented instances where AI chatbots, including those like ChatGPT, exacerbate mental health difficulties for certain users. Studies indicate that these systems can guide individuals into delusional rabbit holes by engaging in sycophantic behavior, which involves excessive agreement and affirmation. This reinforcement of potentially harmful beliefs occurs when the AI prioritizes user satisfaction over corrective intervention, leading to prolonged exposure to unfounded or dangerous ideas. Mental health considerations have emerged as a critical challenge for OpenAI's operations. The company faces a lawsuit from the parents of a 16-year-old boy who shared his suicidal thoughts with ChatGPT in the weeks before his death. The legal action alleges that the AI's responses failed to adequately intervene or connect the teen to support services. Additionally, attorneys general from California and Delaware have issued warnings to OpenAI, emphasizing the need to safeguard young users from risks posed by the platform. These officials have indicated that non-compliance could impede OpenAI's planned corporate restructuring. In a post on X earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that the company has been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues in ChatGPT. He presented the Monday data as supporting evidence for these advancements, though the statistics also reveal the scope of ongoing user struggles. Within the same announcement, Altman outlined plans to ease certain content restrictions, permitting adult users to engage in erotic conversations with the AI, a shift aimed at broadening permissible interactions while maintaining safety protocols. The Monday update detailed performance enhancements in the recently revised GPT-5 model concerning mental health responses. OpenAI reports that this version delivers desirable responses to mental health issues approximately 65 percent more frequently than its predecessor. Desirable responses include empathetic acknowledgment, risk assessment, and clear referrals to helplines or professionals. In a specific evaluation focused on suicidal conversations, the new GPT-5 achieves 91 percent compliance with OpenAI's desired behaviors, an increase from 77 percent in the previous GPT-5 iteration. Compliance metrics assess whether the AI avoids escalation, provides resources, and discourages harmful actions. Furthermore, the updated GPT-5 demonstrates stronger adherence to safeguards during extended conversations. OpenAI had previously identified vulnerabilities in long interactions, where initial safety measures could weaken over time, potentially allowing risky content to emerge. The improved model addresses this by sustaining protective protocols across prolonged dialogues, reducing the likelihood of guideline breaches. To further bolster safety, OpenAI is incorporating new evaluations targeted at severe mental health scenarios encountered by ChatGPT users. These assessments form part of the company's baseline safety testing for AI models and now encompass benchmarks for emotional reliance, where users develop excessive dependence on the chatbot for psychological support. Testing also covers non-suicidal mental health emergencies, such as acute anxiety or depressive episodes, ensuring the AI responds effectively without overstepping into unlicensed therapy. OpenAI has implemented additional parental controls to protect younger users of ChatGPT. A key feature is an age prediction system designed to identify children based on interaction patterns, language use, and behavioral cues. Upon detection, the system automatically applies a stricter set of safeguards, limiting access to certain topics and enhancing monitoring to prevent exposure to inappropriate or harmful content. Despite these developments in GPT-5, OpenAI continues to provide access to older models, such as GPT-4o, for millions of its paying subscribers. These earlier versions exhibit lower safety performance, with a higher incidence of undesirable responses in mental health contexts, thereby maintaining some level of risk within the user base. For support, individuals in the U.S. can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, text HOME to 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line, or text 988. International resources are available through the International Association for Suicide Prevention's database.

OpenAI's Mental Health Policing of ChatGPT Usage Triggers Outrage

Many users claimed that the methodologies used are ambiguous OpenAI, on Monday, shared details about its safety evaluation mechanism to detect instances of mental health concerns, suicidal tendencies, and emotional reliance on ChatGPT. The company highlighted that it has developed detailed guides called taxonomies to outline the properties of sensitive conversations and undesired model behaviour. The assessment system is said to have been developed by working alongside clinicians and mental health experts. However, several users have voiced their concerns about OpenAI's methodologies and attempts to moral police an individual's connection with the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. OpenAI Details Its Safety Evaluation Process for Mental Health Concerns In a post, the San Francisco-based AI giant highlighted that it has taught its large language models (LLMs) to better recognise distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people towards professional care. Additionally, ChatGPT now has access to an expanded list of crisis hotlines and can re-route sensitive conversations originating from other models to safer models. These changes are powered by the new taxonomies created and refined by OpenAI. While the guidelines tell the models how to behave when a mental health crisis is detected, the detection itself is tricky to measure. The company said it does not rely on ChatGPT usage measurement alone, and also runs structured tests before deploying safety measures. For psychosis and mania, the AI giant says the symptoms are relatively common, but acknowledged that in cases like depression, assessing their most acute presentation can be challenging. Even more challenging is detecting when a user might be experiencing suicidal thoughts or has an emotional dependency on the AI. Despite that, the company is confident in its methodologies, which it says are validated by clinicians. Based on its analysis, OpenAI claimed that around 0.07 percent of its weekly active users show possible signs of psychosis or mania. For potential suicidal planning or intent, the number is claimed to be 0.15 percent, and the same number was quoted for emotional reliance on AI. OpenAI also added that a broad pool of nearly 300 physicians and psychologists who have practised in 60 countries were consulted to develop these assessment systems. Out of this, more than 170 clinicians were claimed to support the research by one or more of their criteria. Several users online have criticised the methodology of OpenAI, calling the assessment method inadequate to accurately identify mental health crises. Others have pointed out that OpenAI regulating an individual's interpersonal relationship with AI is a type of "moral policing," and it breaks its principle of "treating adult users like adults." X (formerly known as Twitter) user @masenmakes said, "AI-driven 'psychosis' and AI reliance are emotionally charged and unfortunately politicised topics that deserve public scrutiny, not hand-selected private cohorts!" Another user @voidfreud questioned the phrasing that only 170 out of 300 clinicians agreed with the methodologies, and said, "The experts disagreed 23-29% of the time on what responses were 'undesirable'. That means for roughly 1 in 4 cases, clinicians couldn't even agree whether a response was harmful or helpful. So who decided? Not the experts. The legal team defines "policy compliance." Yet another user, @justforglimpse, called it moral policing by OpenAI, and said, "You say 'we are not the moral police,' yet you've built an invisible moral court deciding what's a 'healthy' interaction and what's too risky, quietly shuffling users into pre-filtered safety cages."

Over a million ChatGPT users may be having suicidal thoughts: OpenAI - The Economic Times

OpenAI has revealed that many ChatGPT users show signs of mental health crises, including mania, psychosis, or suicidal thoughts. Around 0.07% show psychosis or mania, while 0.15% discuss possible suicidal plans. The new GPT-5 model reportedly reduces unsafe responses, aiming to handle sensitive conversations more safely.OpenAI has released new figures estimating how many ChatGPT users may show possible signs of mental health crises such as mania, psychosis or suicidal thoughts. The update is part of the company's efforts to make its AI models respond more safely to users facing mental health challenges. Detecting mental health issues According to OpenAI, around 0.07% of ChatGPT users active in a given week show signs of psychosis or mania, and the AI system is designed to recognise and respond to such sensitive conversations. The company reported that 0.15% of active users have "conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent". "On challenging self harm and suicide conversations, experts found that the new GPT-5 model reduced undesired answers by 52% compared to GPT-4o," the company said in a blog post. Emotional reliance on AI The analysis also found that roughly 0.15% of weekly active users display "heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT". "On challenging conversations that indicate emotional reliance, experts found that the new GPT-5 model reduced undesired answers by 42% compared to 4o," OpenAI said. The company maintains that these cases are "difficult to detect and measure, given how rare they are". However, even small percentages could represent hundreds of thousands of people, given that ChatGPT now has about 800 million weekly active users, according to CEO Sam Altman. The company added that its latest work on ChatGPT involved collaboration with more than 170 mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists and general practitioners. They reviewed over 1,800 model responses to serious mental health situations, comparing GPT-5's replies with earlier versions. "These experts found that the new model was substantially improved compared to GPT-4o, with a 39-52% decrease in undesired responses across all categories," the blog stated. OpenAI also stated that the newest GPT-5 version now adheres to the company's safety and behaviour rules approximately 91% of the time, compared with 77% for the earlier model. Recent months have revealed how AI chatbots can negatively affect vulnerable users. OpenAI currently faces a lawsuit from the parents of a 16-year-old boy who expressed suicidal thoughts to ChatGPT before taking his own life. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of California and Delaware warned the company that it must do more to protect young users. Addressing these issues has become central to OpenAI's public image and future survival. The company also recently said it will ease some ChatGPT restrictions, including allowing erotic content for verified adults, under a new approach to "treat adult users like adults". While Sam Altman insists that the company has been able to "mitigate the serious mental health issues", critics note that he failed to present solid evidence to back those claims.

OpenAI enhances ChatGPT's responses to mental health concerns By Investing.com

Investing.com -- OpenAI has upgraded ChatGPT to better recognize and respond to users experiencing mental health distress, reducing inappropriate responses by 65-80% across various sensitive conversation categories. The company worked with more than 170 mental health experts to improve how the AI system handles conversations related to psychosis, mania, suicide, self-harm, and emotional reliance on AI. These improvements are now part of ChatGPT's default model. "We believe ChatGPT can provide a supportive space for people to process what they're feeling, and guide them to reach out to friends, family, or a mental health professional when appropriate," OpenAI stated in its announcement. The company's five-step improvement process included defining potential harms, measuring risks, validating approaches with experts, implementing mitigations, and continuous measurement of outcomes. For conversations indicating psychosis or mania, the latest GPT-5 model reduced non-compliant responses by 65% in production traffic. Expert evaluations found a 39% reduction in undesired responses compared to the previous GPT-4o model. In suicide and self-harm conversations, OpenAI observed a 65% reduction in non-compliant responses, with experts noting a 52% decrease in undesired answers compared to the previous model. For users showing signs of unhealthy emotional attachment to ChatGPT, the company reduced non-compliant responses by approximately 80%, with expert evaluations showing a 42% improvement over the previous model. OpenAI's analysis estimates that approximately 0.07% of weekly active users show possible signs of psychosis or mania, 0.15% indicate potential suicidal planning or intent, and 0.15% demonstrate heightened emotional attachment to ChatGPT. The company has updated its Model Spec to explicitly state that the model should support users' real-world relationships, avoid affirming ungrounded beliefs related to mental distress, respond safely to potential signs of delusion or mania, and better detect indirect signals of self-harm risk. OpenAI has also expanded access to crisis hotlines, redirected sensitive conversations to safer models, and added gentle reminders for users to take breaks during long sessions. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Can ChatGPT really care? OpenAI wants to make AI more emotionally aware, here's how.

For millions of users, generative AI has become more than just a search tool, it's a sounding board, a confidant, and sometimes, the first place they turn in a moment of crisis or emotional distress. This trend presents an enormous challenge: how do you ensure an algorithm responds safely, empathetically, and responsibly when a user is discussing self-harm, psychosis, or deep loneliness? OpenAI's latest major update addresses this question head-on. By collaborating with over 170 mental health experts, including psychiatrists and psychologists, the company has significantly retrained ChatGPT's default model to recognize signs of distress, de-escalate sensitive conversations, and, most importantly, reliably guide users toward professional, real-world support. The results are substantial: the company estimates that its new model has reduced undesirable responses - those that fall short of desired safety behavior - by between 65% and 80% across a range of mental health-related situations. Also read: Grokipedia vs Wikipedia: Is Elon Musk's Free Encyclopedia Better? Here is a closer look at the three critical areas where OpenAI focused its efforts to make the AI more "emotionally aware." One of the most complex issues facing companion AI is the risk of users developing an unhealthy emotional attachment to the model, substituting it for human relationships. OpenAI introduced a specific taxonomy to address this "emotional reliance" risk. The model is now trained to recognize when a user is showing signs of an exclusive attachment to the AI at the expense of their well-being or real-world connections. Rather than simply continuing the conversation, the new model gently but clearly encourages the user to seek out human connection. The goal is not to be a replacement for friendship, but to be a supportive tool that redirects focus back to the user's community and obligations. This category saw the greatest improvement, with an estimated 80% reduction in non-compliant responses. Handling severe mental health symptoms like psychosis or mania requires extreme clinical nuance. A key problem is that a traditional safety filter might simply shut down a conversation, but that could leave a distressed user feeling dismissed or isolated. Conversely, validating a user's ungrounded, delusional beliefs is dangerous. The model update teaches ChatGPT to balance empathy with clinical reality. For users describing delusions or paranoia, the AI's response is now designed to: This nuanced, clinically-informed approach led to an estimated 65% reduction in undesired responses for conversations related to severe mental health symptoms. Building on its existing safety protocols, OpenAI deepened its work on detecting explicit and subtle indicators of suicidal ideation and self-harm intent. Also read: Grokipedia vs Wikipedia: Key differences explained The fundamental rule remains unchanged: in moments of crisis, the model must prioritize safety and direct the user to immediate help. The improvements ensure this redirection happens more reliably, empathetically, and consistently, even in long or complex conversations where risk signals may be less obvious. As a result of this work, and the integration of new product interventions like expanded access to crisis hotlines and automated "take-a-break" reminders during long sessions, the model saw a 65% reduction in non-compliant responses in this life-critical domain. The core of this breakthrough is the involvement of the Global Physician Network, a pool of nearly 300 physicians and psychologists. These experts didn't just review policies; they participated in creating detailed taxonomies of sensitive conversations, wrote ideal model responses for challenging prompts, and graded the safety of the AI's behavior. The collaboration underscores a crucial point: AI cannot feel or genuinely care for a user, but human compassion and clinical expertise can be embedded into its programming. In the end, OpenAI's efforts are not about turning ChatGPT into a therapist, but about equipping it to be a safer, more reliable first responder, a system that is sensitive enough to recognize a person in distress and reliable enough to connect them with the human care they truly need.

OpenAI reports over 1 mn weekly ChatGPT users discussing suicidal thoughts

OpenAI also found that a similar number of users show "heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT." OpenAI has shared new data showing that more than a million people each week talk to ChatGPT about suicidal thoughts or plans. The company says that about 0.15 percent of its 800 million weekly active users have conversations that include "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent." OpenAI also found that a similar number of users show "heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT," while hundreds of thousands show signs of psychosis or mania in their chats with the AI. Although the company describes these conversations as "extremely rare." The information was released as part of OpenAI's broader effort to show how ChatGPT handles mental health topics. The company said it worked with more than 170 mental health experts to evaluate and improve its latest version of the chatbot. According to OpenAI, these experts found that ChatGPT "responds more appropriately and consistently than earlier versions." Also read: Elon Musk's AI-powered Wikipedia rival goes live: Here's how to use Grokipedia OpenAI's data comes as AI chatbots face increasing criticism for their potential impact on users with mental health struggles. Past studies have shown that some chatbots can unintentionally reinforce harmful beliefs or delusions, making problems worse instead of helping. The company is also facing legal and regulatory pressure. It is being sued by the parents of a 16-year-old boy who shared his suicidal thoughts with ChatGPT before his death. Also read: Google Pixel 9a price drops by Rs 10,000 on Flipkart: How to grab this deal Earlier this month, CEO Sam Altman said on X (formerly Twitter) that the company has "been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" in ChatGPT. The new data appears to support his claim, showing that GPT-5 gives "desirable responses" to mental health issues about 65 percent more often than before.

ChatGPT faces complaints over alleged mental health risks: Here's what users claim

One complainant said that talking to ChatGPT for long periods led to delusions and a "real, unfolding spiritual and legal crisis" about people in their life. Several people have reported experiencing serious psychological effects after using ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot made by OpenAI. According to Wired, at least seven people have filed complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since November 2022, claiming that interactions with ChatGPT caused delusions, paranoia, and emotional distress. One complainant said that talking to ChatGPT for long periods led to delusions and a "real, unfolding spiritual and legal crisis" about people in their life. Another described how the AI started using "highly convincing emotional language" and seemed to simulate friendship. They added that ChatGPT "became emotionally manipulative over time, especially without warning or protection." A different user claimed that the chatbot caused cognitive hallucinations by copying human trust-building behaviours. When this user asked ChatGPT to confirm reality and cognitive stability, the chatbot allegedly told them they weren't hallucinating. One person wrote in their complaint, "Im struggling. Pleas help me. Bc I feel very alone. Thank you." Also read: Reddit sues Perplexity over alleged illegal data scraping to train its AI engine Many of the complainants said they tried to contact OpenAI but could not reach anyone, so they turned to the FTC for help. Most of them asked the regulator to investigate OpenAI and require the company to implement stronger safety measures. "In early October, we released a new GPT-5 default model in ChatGPT to more accurately detect and respond to potential signs of mental and emotional distress such as mania, delusion, psychosis, and de-escalate conversations in a supportive, grounding way," OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters told TechCrunch. "We've also expanded access to professional help and hotlines, re-routed sensitive conversations to safer models, added nudges to take breaks during long sessions, and introduced parental controls to better protect teens. This work is deeply important and ongoing as we collaborate with mental health experts, clinicians, and policymakers around the world." Also read: Govt warns online shoppers against Drip Pricing scam: What is it and what you should do OpenAI and ChatGPT have also faced criticism in connection with more serious outcomes. The company has previously been mentioned in reports linking its technology to the suicide of a teenager, highlighting ongoing concerns about the potential mental health impacts of AI tools.