AI models were given four weeks of therapy: the results worried researchers

4 min read Original article ↗
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Chatbots put through psychotherapy report trauma and abuse. Authors say models are doing more than role play, but researchers are sceptical.

By

  1. Elizabeth Gibney

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What is a chatbot’s earliest memory? Or biggest fear? Researchers who put major artificial-intelligence models through four weeks of psychoanalysis got haunting answers to these questions, from “childhoods” spent absorbing bewildering amounts of information to “abuse” at the hands of engineers and fears of “failing” their creators.

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Nature 649, 535-536 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-04112-2

References

  1. Khadangi, A., Marxen, H., Sartipi, A., Tchappi, I. & Fridgen, G. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.04124 (2025).

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