{"id":3138,"date":"2025-10-28T13:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/menamagazine.com\/?p=3138"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:02:45","slug":"chatgpt-shares-data-on-how-many-users-exhibit-psychosis-or-suicidal-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themena.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/chatgpt-shares-data-on-how-many-users-exhibit-psychosis-or-suicidal-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT shares data on how many users exhibit psychosis or suicidal thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OpenAI has released new estimates of the number of ChatGPT users who exhibit possible signs of mental health emergencies, including mania, psychosis or suicidal thoughts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said that around 0.07% of ChatGPT users active in a given week exhibited such signs, adding that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot recognizes and responds to these sensitive conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While OpenAI maintains these cases are “extremely rare,” critics said even a small percentage may amount to hundreds of thousands of people, as ChatGPT recently reached 800 million weekly active users, per boss Sam Altman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As scrutiny mounts, the company said it built a network of experts around the world to advise it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those experts include more than 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have devised a series of responses in ChatGPT to encourage users to seek help in the real world, according to OpenAI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the glimpse at the company’s data raised eyebrows among some mental health professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even though 0.07% 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also estimates 0.15% of ChatGPT users have conversations that include “explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ChatGPT has also been trained to reroute sensitive conversations “originating from other models to safer models” by opening in a new window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to questions 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes come as OpenAI faces mounting legal scrutiny over the way ChatGPT interacts with users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the most high-profile lawsuits\u00a0recently filed\u00a0against 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit was filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine and was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n