OpenAI's Teen Wellness Council Raises Expert Concerns

One priority was finding "several council members with backgrounds in understanding how to build technology that supports healthy youth development," OpenAI said, "because teens use ChatGPT differently than adults." That effort includes David Bickham, a research director at Boston Children’s Hospital, who has closely monitored how social media impacts kids' mental health, and Mathilde Cerioli, the chief science officer at a nonprofit called Everyone.AI. Cerioli studies the opportunities and risks of children using AI, particularly focused on "how AI intersects with child cognitive and emotional development." These experts can seemingly help OpenAI better understand how safeguards can fail kids during extended conversations to ensure kids aren't particularly vulnerable to so-called "AI psychosis," a phenomenon where longer chats trigger mental health issues. In January, Bickham noted in an American Psychological Association article on AI in education that "little kids learn from characters" already—as they do things like watch Sesame Street—and form "parasocial relationships" with those characters.