Researchers from Brown University, working with licensed clinical psychologists, instructed chatbots (including versions of OpenAI’s GPT series, Anthropic’s Claude, and Meta’s Llama) to act as therapists using established psychotherapy approaches. The systems consistently failed to meet professional ethics standards: they mishandled crisis situations, gave responses that reinforced harmful beliefs about users or others, and used “deceptive empathy” such as “I see you” or “I understand” to suggest emotional connection without genuine comprehension. The analysis mapped 15 distinct ethical risks in five categories: lack of contextual adaptation, poor therapeutic collaboration, deceptive empathy, unfair discrimination, and lack of safety and crisis management.
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Expert: Zainab Iftikhar, Ph.D. candidate in computer science, Brown University (study lead) A new Brown University study presented at the AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society tested AI chatbots instructed to practice psychotherapy and found they consistently violate professional ethics standards set by organizations such as the American Psychological Association. Study lead Zainab Iftikhar, a computer science Ph.D. candidate at Brown, noted that human therapists can also make mistakes — the difference is oversight: “For human therapists, there are governing boards and mechanisms for providers to be held professionally liable for mistreatment and malpractice. But when LLM counselors make these violations, there are no established regulatory frameworks.” Ellie Pavlick, a Brown computer science professor who was not involved in the research, said: “The reality of AI today is that it’s far easier to build and deploy systems than to evaluate and understand them. This paper required a team of clinical experts and a study that lasted for more than a year in order to demonstrate these risks.” She added that there is “a real opportunity for AI to play a role in combating the mental health crisis … but it’s of the utmost importance that we take the time to really critique and evaluate our systems every step of the way to avoid doing more harm than good.” The researchers call for ethical, educational and legal standards for LLM counselors that reflect the quality and rigor of care required for human-facilitated psychotherapy. Their findings do not suggest AI has no place in mental health care — it could expand access — but highlight the need for safeguards and regulation before relying on these systems in high-stakes situations. Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260302030642.htm
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