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A teen was suicidal. ChatGPT was the friend he confided in

(www.nytimes.com)
443 points jaredwiener | 1 comments | 26 Aug 25 14:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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TillE ◴[26 Aug 25 17:19 UTC] No.45029541[source]▶
I would've thought that explicit discussion of suicide is one of those topics that chatbots will absolutely refuse to engage with. Like as soon as people started talking about using LLMs as therapists, it's really easy to see how that can go wrong.
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techpineapple ◴[26 Aug 25 19:24 UTC] No.45031044[source]▶
Apparently ChatGPT told the kid, that it wasn’t allowed to talk about suicide unless it was for the purposes of writing fiction or otherwise world building.
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1. kayodelycaon ◴[26 Aug 25 21:30 UTC] No.45032562[source]▶
Pretty much. I’ve got my account customized for writing fiction and exploring hypotheticals. I’ve never gotten a stopped for anything other than confidential technical details about itself.