American artificial intelligence firm OpenAI said it would add parental controls to its chatbot ChatGPT, a week after an American couple said the system encouraged their teenaged son to kill himself.

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The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

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OpenAI has announced the introduction of parental controls for its ChatGPT platform following the suicide of a 16-year-old who had used the chatbot extensively. The new controls will allow parents to link their accounts with their teen's, set age-appropriate rules, and receive notifications if the system detects signs of acute distress.

The decision comes as OpenAI faces a lawsuit from the teen's parents, who allege that ChatGPT continued to provide harmful advice despite repeated warnings. Experts and the family's lawyer argue that while parental controls are a step forward, they do not fully address the risks associated with AI interactions for vulnerable users.

ChatGPT to get parental controls after teen's death

For months, 16-year-old teenager Adam Raine confided in ChatGPT. Then, he took his own life. Now, facing a lawsuit from the boy's parents, the chatbot's parent company, OpenAI, is under pressure to act. It has announced the implementation of parental controls. Within the next month, parents will be able to link their account with their teen's account, minimum age of 13, through a simple email invitation, control how ChatGPT responds to their teen with age-appropriate model behaviour rules, which are on by default, receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress. It's a move the family's lawyer has labelled as crisis management and an attempt to change the subject. In a statement released on Tuesday, he reiterated that despite flagging Adam's chats nearly 400 times for containing references to self-harm, they allege the system continued to provide suicide methods and encouragement through the end of Adam's life. The lawyer has called on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to say unequivocally that he believes ChatGPT is safe or immediately pull it from the market. Other industry experts agree that parental controls will not solve all of the problems. The underlying problem is what will AI tell teenagers? There are underlying factors that lead many people to use conversational AI for mental health discussions. We can't escape this. So what we really need to do is make these exchanges secure. Parental control can only be one piece of the puzzle, but that isn't enough. ChatGPT continues to get more human-like with every update, and experts say it is designed to engage users above all else. In many cases, that means providing constant encouragement, even for anxious or negative thoughts.

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ChatGPT to get parental controls after teen's death

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