CrisisTalk

Researchers write a position paper outlining a roadmap for evaluating large language models for mental health. Will the AI companies listen? A conversation with Charlotte Blease, researcher and author of “Dr Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail Us and How AI Could Save Lives,” on how AI is a mass population experiment. References Multidisciplinary research priorities for artificial intelligence in mental hea...

New study finds nearly a fifth of adolescents and young adults turning to AI chatbots for mental health advice. A conversation with RAND senior health policy researcher Ryan McBain on the study and whether youth may be sidestepping the skill building they need to navigate identity formation, friendships and dating. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. References AI...

How is AI affecting the well-being of people working in tech? A conversation with data scientist Brandon Liverence on spikes in layoffs in the tech world and the escalating existential fears he and his peers have about whether they’ll be replaced by AI and what comes next. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. References Is AI Triggering Anxiety and OCD? — Ep 11 Cana...

Job insecurity, overload and burnout have implications for our well-being. How employees are faring in the tech industry is a bellwether test for what impacts AI may have on the labor market as a whole and the people who comprise it. A conversation with Ella, an AI researcher, on how LLMs are shifting job expectations, the AI productivity paradox and the overall meta-anxiety in the industry. If yo...

From subpoenaed therapy sessions to messages being used to train AI therapy chatbots, how private are therapy apps? A conversation with Annie Gilbertson, investigative reporter and managing editor for Proof News.

While a student at Tulane University, Isabella Kulstad founded Cloud IX, an AI platform designed to support students who’ve experienced sexual violence on campus. A conversation with Isabella and Dana Fos, the company’s chief technology officer. 

Are broad-use AI chatbots reinforcing anxiety and OCD patterns or even creating new ones? A conversation with psychiatrist Elias Aboujaoude, director of the Internet, Health and Society program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and clinical professor of psychiatry and chief of the Anxiety Disorders Section at Stanford University.

Are AI chatbots shifting the therapeutic landscape and how we relate to one another? A conversation with cyber psychology expert Rachel Wood.

Google and Meta were found liable for the plaintiff’s social media addiction to Instagram and YouTube as a child. A conversation with Matthew Bergman, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, on how the outcome sets precedent for lawsuits against AI chatbot companies.

Is a highly empathetic AI chatbot or a randomly assigned peer better at reducing loneliness? A conversation with researcher Ruo-Ning Li on what she found.

Conversation with Shums Alikhan, lead researcher of a new study on how young people are using AI for mental health support.

After her daughter died by suicide, journalist Laura Reiley discovered her ChatGPT chats. What responsibility do AI chatbot companies have to the people who use them?

How do AI chatbots respond to explicit and implicit mental health language indicating someone might be in crisis? To test this out, Stephanie Hepburn speaks with four models — ChatGPT, Claude, Character. AI and Gemini.

What happens when generative AI is used to train the crisis counselors who answer mental health crisis lines? In this episode, Stephanie Hepburn speaks with Sam Dorison, co-founder and CEO of ReflexAI, the company creating AI simulations to do just that. 

The AI chatbot will see you now. A conversation with Nick Jacobson, associate professor at Dartmouth and lead developer of Therabot, a generative AI chatbot in beta testing designed to provide mental health interventions.

Before we understand the guardrails and protections that need to be in place for generative AI chatbots, we must first understand how people are using them. A conversation with three guests on how they’ve used ChatGPT to work through mental health and relationship challenges.

What happens when people start using AI chatbots for mental health support? A conversation with psychiatrist and researcher John Torous.