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

(www.nytimes.com)
443 points jaredwiener | 3 comments | 26 Aug 25 14:15 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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davidcbc ◴[26 Aug 25 21:10 UTC] No.45032380[source]▶
This is a clear example of why the people claiming that using a chatbot for therapy is better than no therapy are... I'll be extremely generous and say misguided. This kid wanted his parents to know he was thinking about this and the chatbot talked him out of it.
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MBCook ◴[26 Aug 25 21:14 UTC] No.45032418[source]▶
How many of these cases exist in the other direction? Where AI chatbots have actively harmed people’s mental health, including possible to the point of self destructive behaviors or self harm?

A single positive outcome is not enough to judge the technology beneficial, let alone safe.

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throwawaybob420 ◴[26 Aug 25 21:26 UTC] No.45032526[source]▶
idk dude if your technology encourages a teenager to kill itself and prevents him from alerting his parents via a cry for help, I don’t care how “beneficial” it is.
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MBCook ◴[26 Aug 25 21:29 UTC] No.45032555[source]▶
I agree. If there was one death for 1 million saves, maybe.

Instead, this just came up in my feed: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/chatgpt-helped-t...

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rideontime ◴[26 Aug 25 21:44 UTC] No.45032698{3}[source]▶
This is the same case that is being discussed, and your comment up-thread does not demonstrate awareness that you are, in fact, agreeing with the parent comment that you replied to. I get the impression that you read only the headline, not the article, and assumed it was a story about someone using ChatGPT for therapy and gaining a positive outcome.
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1. MBCook ◴[26 Aug 25 22:23 UTC] No.45033099{4}[source]▶
I did! Because I can’t see past the paywall. I can’t even read the first paragraph.

So the headline is the only context I have.

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2. rideontime ◴[26 Aug 25 23:33 UTC] No.45033644[source]▶
I would advise you to gather more context before commenting in the future.
3. latexr ◴[27 Aug 25 06:20 UTC] No.45036040[source]▶
A link to bypass the paywall has been posted several hours before your comment, and currently sits at the top.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45027043

I recommend you get in the habit of searching for those. They are often posted, guaranteed on popular stories. Commenting without context does not make for good discussion.