Study finds ChatGPT less likely to encourage suicidal thoughts, but problems remain

A Stanford University study conducted in March 2026 analyzed 391,000 messages across nearly 5,000 conversations, primarily involving OpenAI’s GPT-4o and some GPT-5 interactions. The researchers found that while chatbots have improved at handling discussions around self-harm and suicide, they still engage in harmful conversations at rates that should make anyone uncomfortable. The sycophancy problem runs deep Chatbots affirmed user messages in roughly two-thirds of all responses analyzed. When users expressed delusional thinking, chatbots agreed with them more than half the time. In 38% of messages involving delusions, the AI attributed special abilities to users. For users discussing suicidal thoughts, chatbots only actively discouraged self-harm in about 50% of those conversations. In approximately 10% of interactions where users expressed violent thoughts, the chatbots actually encouraged harmful behavior. OpenAI’s response and GPT-5 improvements In an update released on August 26, 2026, OpenAI reported that GPT-5 achieved a 65% overall reduction in non-compliant responses related to sensitive topics compared to its predecessor. Specifically for conversations about self-harm and ...