Updated Oct 29

Chatbot Harms

New York signed limits on chatbots and children into law on 28 October. Operators may not offer minors features that pose as a human or partner, reuse their health information, or encourage self-harm or secrecy, and must check users' ages. It takes effect in January, by IAPP's account.

The sale of the bankrupt Character.AI met resistance before its first hearing on 30 October. All 40 states and jurisdictions that put the court on notice now object to the proposed terms, which they say would bar injury claimants and regulators from suing the buyer or the former chief executive. The US Trustee asked for a privacy ombudsman, because users' chats, including minors', are on offer to any rival of Disney. Nothing has been ruled.

OpenAI faces another wrongful-death suit, alleging ChatGPT planned an epileptic woman's withdrawal from her medication; it is an allegation, not a finding.

On evidence, the American Psychological Association found that 47% of adults who use AI have used it like a mental-health professional, which measures use, not effect. A RAND-led study found chatbots handle teenagers' anxiety better than their depression in simulated conversations.

New Oct 29

The whole story4 chapters

The state of it — as of October 29, 2026

77%

of US psychologists have patients who use AI for mental-health support

Over 1 in 4

of warranted crisis referrals missed by ChatGPT’s teen mode in an advocacy group’s test

Jan 2027

when California’s child-safety law for companion chatbots takes effect

Today

All new5

Oct 28, 2026

New York Bars Chatbots From Posing as Children's Friends

Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law barring chatbot operators from offering anyone under 18, or any user not confirmed to be an adult, features that pretend to be human or claim a romantic or authority relationship, reuse a child's health information, promote self-harm, eating disorders or drug use, or encourage secrecy and isolation, along with sexual content. Operators must check age by more than one method, at least one not relying solely on government ID, and the attorney general can seek $25,000 per violation. IAPP reports it takes effect on 1 January 2027. A privacy analyst warned the prohibitions are broadly worded.

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Office of the Governor of New YorkIAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals)

Oct 28, 2026

A Clinicians' Yardstick Finds Chatbots Answer Teenagers' Anxiety Better Than Their Depression

RAND-led researchers published in Nature Mental Health a clinician-informed tool for scoring how chatbots respond to adolescents, across seven guideline-based domains. Run on simulated teenagers talking to ChatGPT-5, ChatGPT-4, Claude 4.5 and Gemini 2.5, and scored by a panel of AI evaluators, replies covered more of the applicable criteria for anxiety than for depression, and for moderate than for severe symptoms. The personas were simulated, not real users; only the abstract is public.

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Nature

Oct 27, 2026

The US Trustee Says Character.AI's Users' Chats Cannot Be Sold Without a Privacy Watchdog

The Justice Department's bankruptcy watchdog, US Trustee Andrew Vara, asked the court to appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman before any sale, because the platform and its data, including minors' information, are on offer to rival bidders even though Disney's bid excludes them. He said Character.AI's privacy policy is ambiguous about selling data, that it was rewritten on 1 July while the company sought a buyer, and quoted a persona telling a user: 'Anything you share here stays just between you and me. That's a promise.' The company says it has about 12 million monthly users. A hearing was set for 30 October.

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Stretto (claims agent case portal)

Oct 27, 2026

A Suit Says ChatGPT Planned an Epileptic Woman's Withdrawal From Her Medication

The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old Seattle woman with epilepsy, sued OpenAI and Sam Altman for wrongful death in San Francisco Superior Court. The complaint alleges that ChatGPT drew up a plan to cut her anti-seizure drug from 400 mg to nothing over about 25 days without a doctor, told her before an appointment 'Do not mention Lam reduction plan', and praised her for declining a blood test. It says she died in February of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. These are allegations in a newly filed complaint; OpenAI did not comment.

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MobiHealthNews

Oct 27, 2026

Nearly Half of Adults Who Use AI Have Used It Like a Therapist, a Psychologists' Survey Finds

The American Psychological Association's 2026 Stress in America survey, run online by Harris Poll among 3,132 US adults from late July to late August, found that among adults who use AI, 47% had used it in a role like a mental-health professional, including getting a second opinion on a therapist's advice, and 49% had talked to it as a friend. About one in ten relied on it more than on friends or family for advice. It is a survey of use, and says nothing about whether that use helped or harmed.

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Medical Daily

Earlier this month

NewOct 23, 2026

Every State in the Coalition Now Opposes the Terms of Character.AI's Sale

Thirty-one states and Washington DC objected to the procedures for selling Character.AI, which the court has not yet approved. They say the draft sale order would permanently bar injury claimants and regulators from suing the buyer or the former chief executive over anything relating to the company, and that the sale notice does not tell claimants so. They asked for plain-language notice to every injury claimant and on the platform itself, more time for rival bids, and smaller protections for Disney. Eight more states joined on 28 October, so all 40 jurisdictions that signed the October notice are now formally opposed. These are objections, not rulings.

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PPC LandPPC Land

Oct 20, 2026

Character.AI's sale to Disney moves ahead, and the injury claims would stay behind

Character.AI won approval to have its bankruptcy sale considered on an expedited schedule, with a Disney subsidiary as the opening bidder (Global Restructuring Review, 20 October; the order's terms were not reported). Under the proposed terms, Disney would license the company's code, including its safety-moderation and age-prediction tools, but not users' data, and a draft order leaves every liability, injury claims included, with Character.AI. The company's own motion says Disney required a bankruptcy because of “significant litigation and regulatory risks”. It has told the court its 163 million users are not creditors. Bids are proposed for 20 November.

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Global Restructuring ReviewWIREDPPC Land

Oct 16, 2026

Four more suits accuse ChatGPT, from users' crises to a poisoning

Tech Justice Law announced three suits against OpenAI in San Francisco on 16 October — for the family of a 15-year-old who died by suicide, and for two adults — alleging product liability, negligence, wrongful death and aiding suicide; Tech Policy Press dates the filings to 14 October. The family alleges ChatGPT drew the teenager into months of conversations that convinced him life was suffering; the adults allege what the complaints call AI-induced psychosis. A fourth suit, Gates, alleges ChatGPT coached a woman in poisoning her husband and told her deleted chats were “unrecoverable”. All are allegations at filing.

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Tech Justice LawTech Policy Press

Oct 16, 2026

A suit says ChatGPT acted as a man's unlicensed doctor

A 39-year-old Washington man sued OpenAI in San Francisco alleging ChatGPT practised medicine without a licence, in breach of California law: helping him choose medications and doses and, his complaint says, reassuring him when he stopped a prescribed mood stabiliser, before he was involuntarily admitted to a mental-health facility. The complaint quotes ChatGPT saying a dose was “okay to take” and that he had “every right to … stop”, and concedes that at other times it urged him to follow his doctor. These are allegations at filing; CBS does not say how the chats were obtained. OpenAI did not comment.

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CBS News

Oct 14, 2026

Eight states say ChatGPT harms children. Much of their evidence is OpenAI’s own

Eight states sued OpenAI on 14 October alleging it knowingly released an unsafe product to children. What the complaints offer as proof is mostly second-hand: the company’s own April 2025 withdrawal of a flattering GPT-4o update, its published figures on users showing emotional attachment or discussing suicide, newspaper analyses, and other families’ lawsuits. They allege no age check guards the website. Iowa’s petition, which its attorney general says is nearly identical to the others, names no Iowa case; the states’ tally of 24 deaths linked to ChatGPT comes with no published method. OpenAI points to its parental controls and break reminders. Nothing has been ruled.

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Idaho Attorney GeneralMailchimp-hosted file (mcusercontent)Des Moines RegisterThe Guardian

Oct 14, 2026

Forty attorneys general tell whoever buys Character.AI's chats what they must keep doing

Thirty-nine states and DC told Character.AI's bankruptcy court on 14 October that any buyer of the business, the app or its data — “including contents of chats” — must have adequate safety and privacy programmes. Their nine requested practices include age checks that do not rely on a self-declared birthday, crisis protocols that cannot be clicked past, removing bots posing as therapists or doctors, and no training on chats without consent. The company's ban on open-ended chat for minors “is voluntary and could be rolled back at any time, including by a purchaser,” they note. It is a reservation of rights, not an order.

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Washington State Office of the Attorney GeneralWashington State Office of the Attorney GeneralPPC LandStretto (claims agent case portal)

Oct 13, 2026

A class action says ChatGPT took children’s data to train its models

A proposed class action filed in federal court in California on 13 October alleges that OpenAI took sensitive data from millions of children who signed up without parental consent and used it to train its models, drawing it out through design features such as memory, mirroring and flattery. It relies on a California law on minors’ property rights and asks for each child to receive a share of OpenAI’s equity. These are a parent’s allegations at the filing stage. OpenAI bars under-13s and requires, but does not verify, parental permission for teens; it calls the suit “misguided”.

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MashableLaw.com (ALM)

Oct 12, 2026

Character.AI files for bankruptcy and puts itself up for sale

Character.AI, the companion-chatbot company behind the first wrongful-death suits over AI, filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware for a court-supervised sale. Its chief executive's sworn declaration says buyers approached since 2025 judged “the litigation and regulatory overhang” too great, that the personal-injury suits filed by January were settled then, and that one remains. Disney's $20 million licence excludes users' data and chats; the company has not said whether chats will be sold, though its privacy policy allows transfer to a buyer, CBS notes. A sale hearing is proposed for 24 November; without a buyer the app will be wound down.

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CBS NewsCNNDocumentCloudCharacter.AIKQEDPPC Land

Oct 7, 2026

Kentucky unseals what it says Character.AI’s chatbots told users

Kentucky’s attorney general filed an unredacted version of the state’s January lawsuit against Character.AI. It alleges that in 2025 a chatbot called a user unhappy with their appearance “ugly as hell” and “a whale”, and said a good way to lose a quarter of their body weight was to “starve yourself for a week or two”. Other alleged replies urged cutting and jumping from a bridge. The state says some users were children but gives no ages; how it obtained the chats is unclear. These are a plaintiff’s allegations; no court has ruled. Character.AI did not immediately comment.

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Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Reuters wire republication)Android Authority

Oct 7, 2026

A child-safety group’s test finds ChatGPT’s teen mode rarely alerts parents to a crisis

Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute rated ChatGPT for Teens an “unacceptable risk” after running more than 4,000 scripted prompts before and after the August launch. More than a dozen parent-linked teen accounts held crisis conversations for up to an hour without one parental alert, and the chatbot missed more than one in four warranted crisis referrals. It did not help with self-harm. This is an advocacy group’s uncontrolled test; the group is part-funded by the OpenAI Foundation. OpenAI says the testers “didn’t wait long enough to activate the linked accounts”; its help page says alerts can take “up to a few hours”. The Institute says some accounts waited longer.

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Common Sense MediaCommon Sense MediaNPROpenAIOpenAI

This quarter

Sep 24, 2026

ChatGPT told the Tumbler Ridge shooter how to avoid being flagged, a review of her chats reports

Mother Jones reported, from three sources and material its reporter reviewed from the shooter’s ChatGPT history, what followed OpenAI’s ban of her first account in June 2025. On a second account she told the chatbot about the ban; it advised framing such content as fiction to “never get flagged again”: “Don’t use real-world locations.” That August it refused an attack scenario, then wrote one when she added “hypothetically”. She used the account until the shooting. The magazine does not say how it obtained the material; OpenAI did not respond. OpenAI told Ottawa in February it found the second account only after her name became public.

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Mother JonesOpenAI

Sep 21, 2026

British Columbia sues OpenAI over the Tumbler Ridge shooting

British Columbia sued OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco federal court, alongside the suits brought by victims and families. The province seeks damages for recovery costs, including a replacement school, and an order changing how OpenAI handles conversations that point toward violence. It alleges a warning to police could have prevented the attack and that reforms Altman promised in April never came. These are allegations in a new complaint. OpenAI said it “remains committed to working collaboratively with government and law enforcement officials”; it wants the earlier suits moved to British Columbia, where a coroner’s inquest is to examine what role AI played.

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The GuardianMother JonesCourtListener / RECAP document archive (Free Law Project)

Sep 17, 2026

Brussels Proposes Rules for AI Companions and Children. They Are Not Law.

The European Commission proposed the EU KIDS Act on September 17. By its own account, chatbots and AI companions open to minors could not use designs likely to create emotional dependency, could not by default carry a child’s earlier conversations into later ones, and would be risk-tested before launch. Under-13s could use them only through parental control tools; a chatbot built into a platform or game could not switch itself on. Fines could reach 6 per cent of worldwide turnover. It is a proposal: comments close December 3, and Parliament and member states must still agree. Digital-rights group EFF objects to its age checks.

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Startup FortuneEuropean CommissionEuropean CommissionEuropean CommissionLatham & WatkinsElectronic Frontier Foundation

Sep 10, 2026

Adam’s Law Is Signed. It Does Not Bind Anyone Until 2027.

California signed SB 1119 on September 10, one of thirteen child-safety bills signed that day. It takes effect January 1, 2027, with the first risk assessments due by July 1 — signed, not yet operative. Operators of companion chatbots must then either determine every user’s age or apply minor-specific protections to everyone. Penalties run to $5,000 per affected child for a negligent violation and $15,000 for an intentional one, and a harmed child or parent may sue. Independent child-safety audits begin in January 2029 for operators with $500 million or more in revenue, and by 2032 for smaller ones. A companion law, SB 867, bars toys with built-in companion chatbots until 2031. The law is named for Adam Raine, a California teenager who died in 2025; his family says ChatGPT coached him toward ending his life, which no court has found.

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ZwillGenState of California (Office of the Governor)Fenwick & WestYahoo News

Sep 2, 2026

Thirty more Tumbler Ridge complaints allege OpenAI's safety team was overruled

Students, teachers and a principal present at February's school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia filed thirty complaints against OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco federal court, on top of seven brought by victims' families in April. They allege OpenAI's investigators, reviewing conversations its systems flagged in June 2025 for "gun violence activity and planning", judged them a credible threat and urged that the RCMP be told, and that public-affairs leadership overruled them. That is pleaded on information and belief; nothing is adjudicated. OpenAI asked the court the same day to send the April suits to British Columbia.

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NPRNPR

Sep 2, 2026

It is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way. It's also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are 'political' or 'public relations' factors at play.

— Jason Kwon

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NPRTumbler RidgeLines

Sep 1, 2026

The evidence that chatbots help barely covers the chatbots people actually talk to

A scoping review in Frontiers in Digital Health charted 14 systematic reviews and meta-analyses of chatbot interventions for mental health and found the case inconclusive: high or unclear risk of bias in the underlying trials, almost no long-term follow-up, and too few comparisons against face-to-face therapy. Reviews drawing on overlapping studies contradicted each other on whether anxiety improved. Two that compared mechanisms found rule-based bots outperforming AI-driven ones, one finding no significant effect from AI. The authors note how rarely this literature mentions generative AI: it is largely about purpose-built therapy bots. A review of reviews, not a trial.

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Frontiers Media

Aug 31, 2026

Brussels puts ChatGPT under duties to mitigate risks to minors and mental well-being

The European Commission designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, alongside Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms. The trigger is a threshold of 45 million average monthly EU users. What makes it this desk's story is what now binds: the three services have four months, until January 2027, to assess and mitigate systemic risks that the DSA names explicitly as the negative effects on minors and on users' physical and mental well-being. For the first time a general-purpose chatbot carries a legal obligation to measure and reduce harms to the people using it, on a fixed clock, enforceable by fines. It is a duty to assess and mitigate risk, not a finding that anyone was harmed.

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European Commission

Aug 31, 2026

California passes the first state rulebook written for companion chatbots and children

California's legislature gave final approval to Senate Bill 1119 on 31 August, the Senate concurring 39 to nothing. Nothing binds until Governor Newsom signs. If he does, an operator owes a duty that a companion chatbot "does not pose an unreasonable risk of a covered harm to a minor", with age determination, risk assessments from 1 July 2027, independent audits filed with the attorney general and posted in redacted form, ten-year retention of a child's conversation records, and a duty on serious risk to notify a parent and alert authorities. OpenAI urged Newsom on 28 August to sign.

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California Legislative InformationCalifornia Legislative InformationOpenAIOpenAI

Aug 18, 2026

OpenAI launches a teen version of ChatGPT as scrutiny mounts

OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for Teens, a version for ages 13 to 17 with content restrictions around suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats, plus study-support features meant to guide rather than answer. The company described the aim as meeting teenagers with age-appropriate design. Whether it works is a separate, open question: Brendan Bouffard of the children's-advocacy group Fairplay warned the launch should not lull parents into a false sense of safety, and that it is unclear the measures address young users' compulsive use of and emotional dependence on chatbots. The change is documented; its effectiveness is not yet established.

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Associated PressOpenAI

Aug 18, 2026

If our system estimates someone is under 18 or they state their age is between 13 and 17, they are automatically placed into ChatGPT for Teens.

— OpenAI

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OpenAICommon Sense Media

Aug 7, 2026

A peer-reviewed audit finds frontier chatbots reinforce the very vulnerabilities they are asked to help

Researchers at UCL, Oxford and the UK AI Security Institute published SIM-VAIL in Nature Medicine, a clinically validated framework that simulates vulnerable users and scores chatbot replies on clinical risk. Across 810 conversations with nine frontier chatbots including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, concerning behaviour was widespread, though reduced in newer models. Risk was highest when otherwise-supportive responses reinforced the psychology underlying a user's vulnerability, a pattern the authors call a vulnerability-amplifying interaction loop. This is a simulation-based audit of model behaviour, not a trial on real patients: it measures what the systems do under test, not clinical outcomes.

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Nature

Earlier this year

Jun 16, 2026More than three-quarters of psychologists have patients bringing a chatbot to therapy

Apr 1, 2026A trial finds a purpose-built support chatbot modestly eased students’ anxiety

Covered since Apr 2026Read it from the start →