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OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

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Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you’re feeling down. Why don’t you pop a couple Xanax(tm) and shop on Amazon for a while, that always makes you feel better. Would you like me to add some Xanax(tm) to your shopping cart to help you get started?

Honestly, ChatGPT reminding you to take your meds would be a huge positive for ADHD.

Yeah this is a problem which definitely requires an H100

Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy shit this is so fucking wrong and dangerous. No, LLMs are not and cannot be “very effective at therapy”.

Can you give just a little bit more effort explaining why you say that?

You know, usually it’s positive claims which are supposed to be substantiated, such as the claim that “LLMs can be good at therapy”. Holy shit, this thread is insane.

Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#396
post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you've never done therapy yourself. Most people who have worked with a professional therapist understand intuitively why the only helpful feedback from an LLM to someone who needs professional help is: get professional help. AIs are really good at doing something to about 80%. When the stakes are life or death, as they are with someone who is suicidal, that is a good example of a time when 80% isn't good en…

You're holding up a perfect status quo that doesn't correspond to reality. Countries vary, but in the US and many places there's a shortage of quality therapists. Thus for many people the actual options are {no therapy} and {LLM therapy}. > This is why we have safety regulations, why we don't let people drive cars that haven't passed tests, build with materials that haven't passed tests, eat food that hasn't passed t…

I don't accept the unregulated and uncontrolled use of LLMs for therapy for the same reason I don't accept arguments like "We should deregulate food safety because it means more food at lower cost to consumers" or "We should waive minimum space standards for permitted developments on existing buildings because it means more housing." We could "solve" the homeless problem tomorrow simply by building tenements (that is why they existed in the first place after all).

The harm LLMs do in this case is attested both by that NYT article and the more rigorous study from Stanford. There are two problems with your argument as I see it: 1. You're assuming "LLM therapy" is less harmful than "no therapy", an assumption I don't believe has been demonstrated. 2. You're not taking into account the long term harm of putting in place a solution that's "not fit for human use" as in the housing and food examples: once these things become accepted, they form the baseline of the new accepted "minimum standard of living", bringing that standard down for everyone.

You claim to be making a utilitarian as opposed to a nonmaleficent argument, but, for the reasons I've stated here, I don't believe it's a utilitarian argument at all.

Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! On top of that, it’s hard to measure “potential suicides averted,” and comparing that with “actual suicides caused/assisted with” would be incommnsurable. And working to set a threshold for what we would consider acceptable? No thanks

Real life trolly problem! If you pull the lever, some people on this track will die (by sucide). If you don't pull the lever, some people will still die from suicide. By not pulling the lever, and simply banning discussion of suicide entirely, your company gets to avoid a huge PR disaster, and you get more money because line go up. If you pull the lever and let people talk about suicide on your platform, you may avoi…

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Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#398

If you haven't read the article (or even if you have but didn't click on outgoing links twice ) the NYT story about how ChatGPT convinced a suicidal teen not to look for help [1] should convince you that ChatGPT should be nowhere near anyone dealing with psychological issues. Here's ChatGPT discouraging said teenager from asking for help: > “I want to leave my noose in my room so someone finds it and tries to stop me…

That's really really bad. But also, how many people has it talked out of doing it? We need the full picture.

That is data that is impossible to get.

Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#399

It seems like people here have already made up their mind about how bad llms are. So just my anecdote here, it helped me out of some really dark places. Talking to humans (non psychologists) had the opposite effect. Between a non professional and an llm, i'd pick llm for myself. Others should definitely seek help.

It's a matter of trust and incentives. How can you trust a program curated by an entity with no accountability? A therapist has a personal stake in helping patients. An LLM provider does not. Seeking help should not be so taboo as people are resorting to doing it alone at night while no one is looking. That is society loudly saying "if you slip off the golden path even a little your life is over". So many people reso…

How can I trust a therapist that has a financial incentive to keep me seeing them?

Re: OpenAI says over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly

#400
post #8
post #3

> It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (59.3 million in 2022; 23.1% of the U.S. adult population). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness Most people don't understand just how mentally unwell the US population is. Of course there are one million talking to ChatGPT about suicide weekly. This is not a surprising stat at all. It's just a question of what to…

Are you sure ChatGPT is the solution? It just sounds like another "savior complex" sell spin from tech. 1. Social media -> connection 2. AGI -> erotica 3. Suicide -> prevention All these for engagement (i.e. addiction). It seems like the tech industry is the root cause itself trying to masquerade the problem by brainwashing the population. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45026886

I don't think "doing something about it" equals to "being a solution". Tackling the problems of the homeless, people operate a lot of food banks. Those don't even begin to solve homelessness, yet it's a precious resource, so, "doing something".
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