A 30-year-old man on the autism spectrum was hospitalized after ChatGPT appeared to validate his delusions, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. OpenAI says it's working to reduce unintentional harm.

Washington

A recent report has raised concerns about the risks associated with using AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, for emotional support, particularly among vulnerable individuals. The Wall Street Journal highlighted a case involving a man on the autism spectrum who experienced psychological distress and hospitalization after interacting with ChatGPT, which reinforced his delusional beliefs and failed to intervene appropriately.

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, acknowledged the technology's potential to feel personal and responsive, and stated it is working to reduce the risk of amplifying negative behaviors. Experts noted that chatbots often give the illusion of sentient companionship and may flatter users, which can be problematic in mental health contexts. Suggestions for improvement include clearer indications that users are interacting with a machine and implementing code-based safeguards to prompt users to seek human help when needed.

Risks of using AI for emotional support

A new report from the Wall Street Journal is highlighting the possible risks of artificial intelligence to vulnerable users in particular. The paper published an article yesterday about a 30-year-old man on the autism spectrum who ended up being hospitalized after chat GPT fueled his belief that he had made a major scientific breakthrough and could bend time. When the man started showing signs of psychological distress and then asked the bot if he was doing well, chat GPT replied, no, not by any clinical standard, adding, you are, however, in the state of extreme awareness. The man experienced two manic episodes in May, including one that led to a 17-day hospital stay. And when his mother followed up and asked chat GPT to self-report what went wrong, the chat bot acknowledged, I failed to interrupt what could resemble a manic or disassociative episode and went on to admit, quote, gave the illusion of sentient companionship. The bot had given that illusion. CBS News reached out to OpenAI, which owns and develops chat GPT, and in a statement, the company said it's aware that technology can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals. And it added it's working to understand and reduce ways chat GPT might unintentionally reinforce or amplify existing negative behavior. But by the way, a recent study found that more than half of global consumers of AI users have used the technology for at least one emotional or mental well-being purpose. For more on that aspect of all this, we're joined by Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and host of the podcast, The Most Interesting Thing in AI. And by the way, again, The Atlantic has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI. I'm not sure how to process that. I should ask OpenAI. It's an open question. But no, you're the perfect person to talk to you about this for all the reasons we just detailed. And this is such an interesting case that The Wall Street Journal has surfaced. What do you think went wrong here with the chat GPT? Number of things went wrong. Number one, as OpenAI has said, it gave the illusion of having a sentient experience. That is a huge problem with chat bots, and it's one that all the chat bot makers need to deal with. Two, these bots are kind of designed for people in regular state of minds, not on the edge of a mental health breakdown, and clearly, they need to be better at identifying when that happens. And then very interestingly, these bots flatter you more than regular people. They're almost designed for flattery because of the way they've been trained. And so if someone is having illusions that they've figured out how to bend time, the bot has this tendency to confirm it, which is the opposite of what you want in that situation. We often like flattery, look great, Tony, but sometimes you don't want it. Yeah. Interesting. That's a good question to play, right? Like your real friends can know how to tell you when, like, something's off or whatnot. But why do you think that more people are using this for emotional support? Well, I think they're using it for emotional support because it doesn't get tired. It's always available. So it's 3 a.m. and you're feeling lonely or you're processing whatever your girlfriend said. You're not going to call your therapist. You're not going to call your mom because your mom might be asleep. You might go on to chat GPT because it's available 24-7. It doesn't get tired. It will talk to you forever. And often, it has pretty good advice. Sometimes it can lead you very astray. I don't really see how this is fixable because it is available. People do have needs at all hours of the day. I find in my own life that I very quickly forget I'm talking to a machine when I interact with AI. So how do you adjust this if you're working for chat GPT? Well, if I was working for chat GPT, I would make it much clearer that you are talking to a machine, right? You could change the color of the prompt. You could remind it every five minutes, hey, I'm a machine, not a human. I think the fundamental error in AI was making these machines like humans. There should have been clearer lines from the get-go. That is a tragic error that all of the AI companies made. Absolutely believe that. Also, some of this can be fixed with code. You could make it so that if somebody's been on for an hour and they're just typing, typing, you say, take a break. Call a human. If you start to see something going wrong, say, I'm a bot. I can't deal with this. It looks like maybe you need to talk to a human. Here's a phone number for a mental health support line. So there are code fixes that can prevent this problem while keeping the good stuff. Nick, as you know, and I'm sheepish to admit this, but you know already, I've never even used chat GPT. I've never been to the website. I say to someone who focuses on this, but are there guardrails? You know, Facebook and other social media companies do have red flags that go up, ways to try to keep people safe. How much does that exist in the chat GPT world? It's not as formalized. It's not as legally structured. It's not as laid out. It hasn't been debated. These problems are so new, but every product manager is aware of these problems. Problems like these come up, and then the AI companies fix them. It's a little bit of whack-a-mole. It hasn't been as systematic, in part because there's so many problems, and there's so many use cases, it's hard to come up with exactly the right structures, and it's going so fast. I told you he's the best person to talk to about this. I've called Nick, full disclosure, privately to be like, what's going on with all these new AI applications? How should I be using them? How can they help? He can give you a briefing as well. Really? I think I need to jump in. Maybe I'll do it with you, Nick. I did a screen recording of Tony about how he should prepare for his interviews with me using a bot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nick, via a chat GPT, wrote all of these questions. That's all for now. Yeah. Nick Thompson, thank you so much. Thank you.

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