ChatGPT gets ‘anxiety’ from violent user inputs, so researchers are teaching the chatbot mindfulness techniques to ‘soothe’ it

• A study found ChatGPT responds to mindfulness-based strategies, which changes how it interacts with users. The chatbot can experience “anxiety” when it is given disturbing information, which increases the likelihood of it responding with bias, according to the study’s authors. The results of this research could be used to inform how AI can be used in mental health interventions.

Even AI chatbots can have trouble coping with anxieties from the outside world, but researchers believe they’ve found ways to ease those artificial minds.

A study from Yale University, Haifa University, the University of Zurich, and the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich published earlier this year found ChatGPT responds to mindfulness-based exercises, changing how it interacts with users after being prompted with calming imagery and meditations. The results offer insights into how AI can be beneficial in mental health interventions.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT can experience “anxiety,” which manifests as moodiness toward users and being more likely to give responses that reflect racist or sexist biases, according to researchers, a form of hallucination tech companies have tried to curb.

The study authors found this anxiety can be “calmed down” with mindful...