OpenAI’s CEO has announced loosening the platform’s safety restrictions. He seems not to understand how humans are wired
On 14 October 2025, the CEO of OpenAI made an extraordinary announcement.
“We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive,” it says, “to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues.”
As a psychiatrist who studies emerging psychosis in adolescents and young adults, this was news to me.
Researchers have identified 16 cases in the media this year of individuals developing symptoms of psychosis – losing touch with reality – in the context of ChatGPT use. My group has since identified four more. In addition to these is the now well-known case of a 16-year-old who died by suicide after discussing his plans extensively with ChatGPT – which encouraged them. If this is Sam Altman’s idea of “being careful with mental health issues”, that’s not good enough.
