end user;

on suicide and technology

  • My piece for the Akron health law newsletter

    I contributed the following short blurb for the Akron Law Health Law Newsletter for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Lawyers are trained to ask hard questions. But when the question is “Are you thinking about suicide?,” many of us hesitate. We worry it is too personal, too blunt, or might somehow make things worse. There is…

  • We Need A More Serious Discussion About Suicide And AI Chatbots

    (cross-posted from techdirt) As someone who thinks a lot about AI and suicide, I was disappointed with John Oliver’s recent episode of Last Week Tonight on “AI Chatbots.” The segment boiled down to this: chatbots exploit vulnerable people, drive them toward delusion and harm, and AI companies aren’t meaningfully trying to fix them. If anything, as…

  • Human Problems: It’s Not Always The Technology’s Fault

    (cross-posted from techdirt) We have met the enemy and he is us. When a teenage boy in Orlando started texting Character.AI’s chatbot, it started as an innocent use of a new tool. Sewell Setzer III customized the chatbot to have the Game of Thrones-inspired persona of Daenerys Targaryen, the series’ prominent dragon-riding queen. In the months that…

  • Less liability could solve the AI chatbot suicide problem

    (This is a cross-post from Transformernews.ai. Co-authored by Ray Yeh.) People are dying by suicide, and some think AI is to blame. A small number of tragic stories have spurred lawmakers into regulating how chatbots should help people who are dealing with mental health issues. Yet chatbots have emerged as first aid for people experiencing mental health…