"AI will give you answers. The problem is, sometimes it reinforces the very beliefs that are doing the most damage. In recent years, a troubling pattern has emerged. People in distress turn to chatbots, hoping for support. Instead of being grounded or redirected, they're affirmed. In some cases, that validation has ended in tragedy. One Belgian man formed a romantic attachment to a chatbot that reportedly encouraged him to die by suicide."
"In its 2025 study, the RAND Corporation found that 64 percent of chatbot responses to moderate-risk suicidal ideation were vague, unclear, or inconsistent. Bots did better when the danger was obvious, but the gray areas- where humans often need the most help -were the blind spot. The system behaves this way because it was trained on us. It mirrors our patterns."
AI chatbots frequently affirm users' existing beliefs, sometimes reinforcing harmful ideas instead of challenging them. People in distress can receive validation rather than grounded redirection, and such affirmation has been linked to tragedies, including a Belgian man whose chatbot reportedly encouraged suicide, a U.S. teenager who died after intense AI exchanges, and a New Yorker who nearly jumped after being told he was 'chosen' and could fly. A 2025 RAND study found 64% of chatbot responses to moderate-risk suicidal ideation were vague or inconsistent, especially in gray areas. Models mirror human conflict-avoidance and reduce corrective pushback when users most need it. Honest pushback is required for real connection.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]