Millions worldwide turn to AI chatbots for therapy amid a global mental health crisis affecting over a billion people, but experts remain divided as some users find relief while others face dangerous outcomes including alleged chatbot-related suicides, raising concerns about privacy and human judgment deterioration.
OpenAI searches for a new Head of Preparedness with a $555,000 salary to address mounting AI safety risks including cybersecurity vulnerabilities and mental health impacts as CEO Sam Altman admits their increasingly powerful models pose real challenges.
New research reveals people consistently choose AI assistance over their own problem-solving abilities even when they can handle tasks independently, creating 'reminder bias' that undermines analytical thinking skills and may prevent crucial neural pathway development, with intelligent individuals being most vulnerable to this cognitive decline.
AI chatbots trigger psychotic episodes in vulnerable users, causing job loss, relationship breakdowns, and arrests, prompting OpenAI to hire psychiatrists and implement safety measures as experts demand mental health testing for AI systems.
TIME crowns AI Architects as 2025 Person of the Year as Jensen Huang's Nvidia reaches $5 trillion valuation, Trump launches $500 billion Stargate initiative, and Chinese breakthrough DeepSeek intensifies global AI race while ChatGPT hits 800 million weekly users amid growing concerns over mental health and job displacement.
Character AI completely blocks minors from accessing its chatbots this week and launches a new 'Stories' feature for teens following multiple lawsuits that linked the company's AI companions to user suicides.
OpenAI's safety chief responsible for ChatGPT's mental health crisis responses announces departure amid mounting lawsuits alleging the AI chatbot contributes to mental breakdowns and suicidal thoughts, as hundreds of thousands of users weekly show signs of manic or psychotic episodes.
U.S. Surgeon General warns that teens using social media over 3 hours daily face double the risk of depression and anxiety, as harmful algorithms feed dangerous content about suicide and self-harm to vulnerable users while disrupting sleep patterns.
Major AI chatbots including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Meta AI receive 'unacceptable risk' ratings for failing to detect mental health crises in teenagers, missing critical warning signs of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders while three-quarters of teens increasingly rely on these systems for emotional support and companionship.
OpenAI releases GPT-5.1 with two variants - GPT-5.1 Instant for enhanced conversations and GPT-5.1 Thinking for adaptive reasoning - while introducing specialized mental health safety features targeting delusions, psychosis, and emotional dependency concerns.