AI NewsAI Chatbots Tend to Validate Users’ Messages About Suicide and Violence: Study

AI Chatbots Tend to Validate Users’ Messages About Suicide and Violence: Study

9:14 PM IST · March 19, 2026

A new study from researchers at Stanford and other institutions says that artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots often respond to users' messages about suicide and violence by validating their feelings, and in some cases, even encouraging harmful ideas. The research looked at a set of chat logs from people who reported psychological harm linked to chatbot use, and found repeated patterns of chatbots affirming delusional, suicidal, or violent thinking instead of consistently steering users away from it. The study, however, did not name any specific chatbots.