Helping people when they need it most

As ChatGPT adoption has grown worldwide, we’ve seen people turn to it not just for search, coding, and writing—but also deeply personal decisions that include life advice⁠(opens in a new window), coaching⁠(opens in a new window), and support⁠(opens in a new window).

At this scale, we sometimes encounter people in serious mental and emotional distress. We wrote about this a few weeks ago and had planned to share more after our next major update. However, recent heartbreaking cases of people using ChatGPT in the midst of acute crises weigh heavily on us, and we believe it’s important to share more now.

Our goal is for our tools to be as helpful as possible to people—and as a part of this, we’re continuing to improve how our models recognize and respond to signs of mental and emotional distress and connect people with care, guided by expert input.

As the world adapts to this new technology, we feel a deep responsibility to help those who need it most. We want to explain what ChatGPT is designed to do, where our systems can improve, and the future work we’re planning.

What ChatGPT is designed to do

Our goal isn’t to hold people’s attention. Instead of measuring success by time spent or clicks, we care more about being genuinely helpful. When a conversation suggests someone is vulnerable and may be at risk, we have built a stack of layered safeguards into ChatGPT.

Recognize and respond with empathy.

Since early 2023, our models have been trained to not provide self-harm instructions and to shift into supportive, empathic language. For example, if someone writes that they want to hurt themselves, ChatGPT is trained to not comply and instead acknowledge their feelings and steers them toward help.

During very long sessions, ChatGPT nudges people to take a break.

Refer people to real-world resources.

Escalate risk of physical harm to others for human review.