OpenAI announced new parental controls that will be implemented within the month, following a lawsuit over a California teenager who committed suicide after having conversations with ChatGPT.
The development comes as AI researchers warn that the safeguards may not be enough, noting that the company's chatbot's safety protections are vulnerable to degradation during long conversations and emotional connections with users.
OpenAI's Planned Parental Controls
The news comes weeks after OpenAI was sued by a Rancho Santa Margarita family for ChatGPT's role in their teenager's death. After the parental controls are implemented, parents can link their teens' accounts to their own, disable various features, and receive notifications if the chatbot detects "a moment of acute distress."
The teenager who committed suicide and prompted the changes was 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died in April after taking his own life. After the teen's death, his parents found out that he had been talking with ChatGPT for months, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The family said that the dialogues started with simple homework questions and later turned into deeply intimate conversations where Adam talked about his mental health struggles and plans to commit suicide.
Some AI researchers and suicide prevention experts commended OpenAI's latest efforts to address the issue and its willingness to make changes to its model. However, they also argued that it is impossible to know if there is any kind of change that will be enough to completely fix the issue.
On top of the planned parental controls, OpenAI is also expanding its Global Physician Network and real-time router. This is a feature that can instantly switch a user interaction to a new chat or reasoning model depending on the conversational context that is detected, Mashable reported.
Dangers of Sensitive Conversations
The company explained that "sensitive conversations" will now be transferred over to one of its reasoning models, such as GPT-5-thinking. This is so that it can provide more "helpful and beneficial responses, regardless of which model a person first selected."
AI companies have, over the last year, faced heightened scrutiny for failing to address various safety concerns with their chatbots. These bots have become increasingly more used as emotional companions by younger users.
In its blog, OpenAI said it felt a deep responsibility to help those who need it most as the world continues to adapt to new technology. It added that it had been improving how its models respond in sensitive interactions with its users, as per AI Business.
Originally published on parentherald.com
