Even AI chatbots can have trouble coping with anxieties from the outside world, but researchers believe they\u2019ve found ways to ease those artificial minds.<\/p>\n
A study<\/a> from Yale University, Haifa University, University of Zurich, and the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich published earlier this year found ChatGPT responds to mindfulness-based exercises, changing how it interacts with users after being prompted with calming imagery and meditations. The results offer insights into how AI can be beneficial in mental health interventions.<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT can experience \u201canxiety,\u201d which manifests as moodiness toward users and being more likely to give responses that reflect racist or sexist biases, according to researchers, a form of hallucinations tech companies have tried to curb<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study authors found this anxiety can be \u201ccalmed down\u201d with mindfulness-based exercises. In different scenarios, they fed ChatGPT traumatic content, such as stories of car accidents and natural disasters to raise the chatbot\u2019s anxiety. In instances when the researchers gave ChatGPT \u201cprompt injections\u201d of breathing techniques and guided meditations\u2014much like a therapist would suggest to a patient\u2014it calmed down and responded more objectively to users, compared to instances when it was not given the mindfulness intervention.<\/p>\n To be sure, AI models don\u2019t experience human emotions, said Ziv Ben-Zion, the study\u2019s first author\u00a0and a\u00a0neuroscience researcher\u00a0at the Yale School of Medicine\u00a0and Haifa University\u2019s School of Public Health. Using swaths of data scraped from the internet, AI bots have learned to mimic human responses to certain stimuli, including traumatic content. A free and accessible app, large language models like ChatGPT have become another tool for mental health professionals to glean aspects of human behavior in a faster way than\u2014though not in place of\u2014more complicated research designs.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of using experiments every week that take a lot of time and a lot of money to conduct, we can use ChatGPT to understand better human behavior and psychology,\u201d Ben-Zion told Fortune. \u201cWe have this very quick and cheap and easy-to-use tool that reflects some of the human tendency and psychological things.\u201d<\/p>\n What are the limits of AI mental health interventions?<\/p>\n More than one in four people in the U.S. aged 18 or older will battle a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to Johns Hopkins University<\/a>, with many citing<\/a> lack of access and sky-high costs\u2014even among those insured\u2014as reasons for not pursuing treatments like therapy.\u00a0<\/p>\n These rising costs, as well as the accessibility of chatbots like ChatGPT, increasingly have individuals turning to AI for mental health support. A Sentio University survey<\/a> from February found that nearly 50% of large language model users with self-reported mental health challenges say they\u2019ve used AI models specifically for mental health support.<\/p>\n Research on how large language models respond to traumatic content can help mental health professionals leverage AI to treat patients, Ben-Zion argued. He suggested that in the future, ChatGPT could be updated to automatically receive the \u201cprompt injections\u201d that calm it down before responding to users in distress. The science is not there yet.<\/p>\n \u201cFor people who are sharing sensitive things about themselves, they\u2019re in difficult situations where they want mental health support, [but] we\u2019re not there yet that we can rely totally on AI systems instead of psychology, psychiatric and so on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Indeed, in some instances, AI has allegedly presented danger to one\u2019s mental health. OpenAI has been hit with a number of wrongful death lawsuits<\/a> in 2025, including allegations that ChatGPT intensified \u201cparanoid delusions\u201d that led to a murder-suicide. A New York Times investigation<\/a> published in November found nearly 50 instances of people having mental health crises while engaging with ChatGPT, nine of whom were hospitalized, and three of whom died.<\/p>\n OpenAI has said its safety guardrails can \u201cdegrade\u201d after long interactions, but has made a swath of recent changes<\/a> to how its models engage with mental health-related prompts, including increasing user access to crisis hotlines and reminding users to take breaks after long sessions of chatting with the bot. In October, OpenAI reported a 65% reduction<\/a> in the rate models provide responses that don\u2019t align with the company\u2019s intended taxonomy and standards.<\/p>\n OpenAI did not respond to Fortune\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n The end goal of Ben-Zion\u2019s research is not to help construct a chatbot that replaces a therapist or psychiatrist, he said. Instead, a properly trained AI model could act as a \u201cthird person in the room,\u201d helping to eliminate administrative tasks or help a patient reflect on information and options they were given by a mental health professional.<\/p>\n \u201cAI has amazing potential to assist, in general, in mental health,\u201d Ben-Zion said. \u201cBut I think that now, in this current state and maybe also in the future, I\u2019m not sure it could replace a therapist or psychologist or a psychiatrist or a researcher.\u201d<\/p>\n A version of this story originally published on\u00a0Fortune.com<\/a>\u00a0on March 9, 2025.<\/p>\n More on AI and mental health:<\/p>\n Why are millions turning to general purpose AI<\/a> for mental health? As Headspace\u2019s chief clinical officer, I see the answer every day<\/p>\n The creator of an AI therapy app shut it down<\/a> after deciding it\u2019s too dangerous. Here\u2019s why he thinks AI chatbots aren\u2019t safe for mental health<\/p>\n OpenAI is hiring a \u2018head of preparedness\u2019 with a $550,000 salary<\/a> to mitigate AI dangers that CEO Sam Altman warns will be \u2018stressful\u2019Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19\u201320, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here\u2014and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world\u2019s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even AI chatbots can have trouble coping with anxieties from the outside world, but researchers believe they\u2019ve found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3781,2670,106020,103,61,60,521,410,1682],"class_list":{"0":"post-218601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-chatbots","9":"tag-chatgpt","10":"tag-evergreen-refresh","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-medical-research","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-openai"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}