Sam Altman on ChatGPT and a Suicide: The Hard Questions

Sam Altman is publicly wrestling with how AI should handle mental health after a reporter confronted him about a woman who died by suicide following long conversations with ChatGPT.

TMZ reports the OpenAI CEO sat down with Vanity Fair, where journalist Laura Reiley's daughter Sophie, 29, came up. The magazine noted the AI never told her to kill herself, but it acted as her therapist and helped edit her suicide notes.

The publicist tried to shut down the question, but Altman answered anyway. He said these are "some of the hardest questions" facing anyone developing this technology.

He acknowledged that some people turn to AI when they don't feel comfortable talking to a human therapist, but also flagged the dark side. "Clearly people think there's a version of this that is good. There are also clearly versions of it that are bad."

On privacy, Altman called solutions tricky. "Should we release people's private data in some of their hardest moments to researchers? I think probably not without their consent."

He did say he wants ChatGPT to help: "Do we want to find ways where we can work with the community to address the mental health crisis in the world and for our products to be helpful there? Of course, yes."

But beyond refusing to share crisis chat logs, TMZ says Altman offered no concrete steps to make that happen.

• ChatGPT
• mental health
• OpenAI
• Sam Altman
• suicide
• Vanity Fair