OpenAI has established an eight-person advisory council to monitor AI safety and user well-being. The group is tasked with defining standards for healthy interactions with the company’s artificial intelligence technologies across different age demographics.
The council’s formation was announced as CEO Sam Altman stated on the platform X that OpenAI has successfully mitigated “serious mental health issues” arising from its products. Altman also revealed that ChatGPT would begin to permit more adult content, including erotica, in user chats. This development occurs as the company faces its first wrongful-death lawsuit, which includes an allegation that ChatGPT contributed to the suicide of a young teenager.
We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.
Now that we have…
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 14, 2025
Members of the new advisory council include academics from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Digital Wellness Lab and Stanford’s Digital Mental Health Clinic. The group is further composed of experts with professional backgrounds in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and human-computer interaction, bringing a range of specialized knowledge to the task.
Public opinion on the use of AI for mental wellness remains low, according to a recent YouGov poll. The survey of 1,500 Americans found that only 11 percent were open to using AI as a tool to improve their mental health. An even smaller portion of respondents, just 8 percent, said they trusted the technology for such purposes.
Among mental health experts, generative AI companions have raised serious concerns. These include the emergence of a condition that has been described as “AI psychosis” among individuals who chronically use chatbot companions. Despite a lack of evidence confirming their efficacy, AI companies continue to introduce mental health products as an increasing number of Americans turn to digital platforms for support and to find answers to mental health questions.
The role of these technologies is now under government scrutiny. Federal regulators are investigating the impact of generative AI and chatbot companions on the growing mental health crisis, particularly among teens. At the state level, several governments have banned AI-powered chatbots that are advertised as therapeutic assistants.
