AI chatbots can’t handle vulnerability—IGAP report flags safety gaps amid India's mental health crisis

New Delhi: Those Artificial Intelligence (AI) chats could be hurting, not helping, you. An Indian Governance and Policy Project (IGAP) report has warned that AI chatbots are not equipped to handle moments of vulnerability, even as they become a first point of contact for many users seeking emotional support.

AI chatbots are apps that engage in human-like conversation. Prominent examples are Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot.The rapidly growing use of these apps for emotional support has sparked concerns about compromised user safety, deficiencies in handling crises and creating dependence. Released earlier this month, the IGAP report, titled ‘The Conversation Nobody Planned For’, lays out how and why this is happening.

India remains woefully short of qualified mental healthcare professionals, the report, authored by Soumya A.K. and Shachi Solanki, said. Against the World Health Organization (WHO) benchmark of three psychiatrists per 100,000 people, India has less than 1 per 100,000, it revealed. Concurrently, and making the situation more worrisome, is the fact that Internet and AI usage are ubiquitous—over 900 million Indians are online, and this in a nation where almost two-thirds of the population is under 35. The social stigma attached to mental health issues means most have no-one to turn to when navigating academic, social and economic pressures.All this stress has severe consequences. Individuals aged 18-45 account for nearly two-thirds of all suicides nationally, the report said. Adolescents, urban migrants, and marginalised users, including those with caste or gender identity issues for whom human disclosure may be unavailable or unsafe, face the highest risk, it said.With increasing digital adoption, people turn to AI because it feels non-judgmental. Consequently, policy planners need to ensure accessible, equitable, and culturally appropriate mental health services at scale, the report said, underlining that the current design and ecosystem have structural limitations that need to be fixed.