While parents, schools, and lawmakers are still debating the impact of social media on children's mental health, a new technology has taken the therapist's seat: AI chatbots.
In research that my colleagues and I published recently in JAMA Pediatrics, we found that the share of young people using AI chatbots for mental health advice rose from about 1 in 8 to about 1 in 5 in a single year—more than a 40% increase. That finding should end any illusion that this is a speculative problem. For millions of adolescents, AI is already part of the mental health landscape.…
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