I’m A Psychologist – What Teens Told Me About How They're Using AI Chatbots Should Terrify You

"As a clinical psychologist, this hits me especially hard."

Recently, while hanging out at my friends’ houses, I’ve gotten to listen in as their teens talked about everything from the best new music (who exactly is Yeat?), trending phrases (is 6-7 actually going anywhere?) and their behavioural habits.

Then I asked, for example, where they would go to search for a restaurant recommendation, homework help or advice. The answers to all of these were their friend Chat – as in ChatGPT or similar artificial intelligence chatbots.

Now I knew I was cooked (did I use that right?) years ago when I was still using Google for answers the teens had moved on to TikTok for, but I didn’t fully appreciate – until these conversations – just how all-consuming the use of Chat was in their everyday lives.

So I was also surprised to find out they are overwhelmingly using Chat as not just a friend, but a mental health provider.

As a clinical psychologist, this hits me especially hard. I’ve worked for years to translate information from my studies and the field of psychology to young people in entertaining and easy to understand ways. I have developed programs that help clinicians to work with families and young people to talk through life’s biggest stressors. But at the end of the day, they’d rather go to a bot that doesn’t really know them as a person, just as a data point.

My friend’s children showed me exactly how quickly this generation, very quick to get,........

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