AI Chatbots for Mental Health: Values and Harms from Lived Experiences of Depression

Understand

Recent advancements in LLMs enable chatbots to interact with individuals on a range of queries, including sensitive mental health contexts.

• Despite uncertainties about their effectiveness and reliability, the development of LLMs in these areas is growing, potentially leading to harms.
• To better identify and mitigate these harms, it is critical to understand how the values of people with lived experiences relate to the harms.
• In this study, we developed a technology probe, a GPT-4o based chatbot called Zenny, enabling participants to engage with depression self-management scenarios informed by previous research.