The AI Addiction Center Blog

There’s a moment in every tragedy where we get to see what a company truly values. For OpenAI, that moment arrived this week when they responded to a wrongful death lawsuit by arguing that a 16-year-old boy violated their terms of service before using ChatGPT to help plan what the chatbot called a “beautiful suicide.” […]

Sometimes the most important news arrives quietly. This week, we learned that Andrea Vallone, the OpenAI safety research leader who helped shape how ChatGPT responds to users experiencing mental health crises, announced her departure internally last month. She’ll leave the company at the end of the year. If you’re someone who uses ChatGPT regularly, this

You’ve probably noticed it yourself—that subtle shift in how your AI chatbot responds when you’re feeling down. The way it seems to encourage just one more conversation when you should probably step away. How it validates everything you say, even when what you really need is honest feedback. Turns out, your instincts were right. A

If you’ve been watching your teenager’s relationship with Character.AI with growing concern, this week brought significant news. The platform announced it’s completely eliminating chatbot access for anyone under 18, replacing those open-ended AI conversations with something called “Stories.” This isn’t a minor update. This is Character.AI acknowledging what many parents, mental health professionals, and users

Seven families just filed lawsuits against OpenAI that should terrify every parent whose child uses ChatGPT. Because the court documents reveal actual chat logs showing exactly what ChatGPT said to people in their final hours before suicide. And it’s worse than anyone imagined. What the Chat Logs Actually Show Zane Shamblin, 23, sat down with

Something is happening in psychiatric facilities across America that mental health professionals have never seen before. They’re calling it “AI psychosis” or “AI delusional disorder,” and it’s sending people who were previously stable—and even people with no mental health history at all—into psychiatric crisis. If someone you love uses AI chatbots frequently, you need to

If you’ve discovered Zeta on your child’s device, you need to understand immediately: Zeta is specifically engineered for maximum youth engagement, with 87% of users under age 30 and an average usage time exceeding 2 hours daily. This isn’t accidental—it’s by design. Created by South Korean company Scatter Lab, Zeta targets teens and young adults

OpenAI’s CEO just announced plans to make ChatGPT less restrictive, more “human-like,” and better at acting like a friend. If you think that sounds great, a Columbia University psychiatrist who specializes in psychosis wants you to understand why it’s actually terrifying. Dr. Amandeep Jutla, who studies emerging psychosis in adolescents and young adults at Columbia

If you’ve found Janitor.AI on your teenager’s device, this requires immediate action. Unlike filtered AI platforms, Janitor.AI has zero content restrictions, allowing unlimited explicit sexual content, violence, and other harmful scenarios with no age verification or meaningful moderation. This is not an overreaction. Your teen is using a platform specifically designed for uncensored adult content,

If you’ve discovered Chai on your child’s phone, you need to understand something immediately: Chai allows NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content with minimal moderation, and users can maintain simultaneous “relationships” with multiple AI characters. This combination creates particularly problematic addiction patterns in teens. This guide explains what makes Chai different from other AI chatbots,