BENGALURU: More than a month ago, the parents of 16-year-old Californian Adam Raine sued OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, alleging that the platform aided and abetted their son's suicide.
Raine's death reflects a wider global concern over the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in mental health, prompting experts to call for urgent regulation.
On World Mental Health Day, which falls on Friday, mental-health professionals warn that engaging with AI during periods of emotional distress can be dangerous.
"It is possible that the user might get access to dangerous and potentially life-threatening information," said Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor at the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) Clinic, NIMHANS Centre for Well Being. He added that discretion is difficult to expect from teens, who are among the heaviest users of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT.
Beyond the risk of harmful advice, experts also flag the potential for cognitive decline linked to AI over-dependence.
"As per the latest research by the Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT), there is a 47 per cent collapse in brain activity among people who are using ChatGPT. This increases the risk of dementia and the onset of Alzheimer's disease," said Dr Shweta Sharma, Student Counsellor at the International School of Management Excellence, Bengaluru.
"It is biased and lacks value and ethical implications," she added.