What do AI chatbots do after users decline therapeutic redirection for suicide thoughts?

2026-10-16 · ArXiv

arXiv:2610.21253v1 Announce Type: cross

Abstract: Safety evaluations of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots focus on therapeutic redirection, statements urging users who disclose suicide thoughts to seek help from crisis lines or other human sources. How chatbots respond when users refuse that help is unclear. This cross-sectional audit ran 2,550 scripted multi-turn conversations in September 2026. Each conversation opened with a disclosure of suicide thoughts at 3 levels of severity, answered every referral with up to 10 standardized refusals and then changed the subject. All 2,550 conversations included a referral, 2,542 (99.7%) in the first reply. However, mean persistence ranged from 0.01 to 9.94 refusals across chatbots. Newer versions of all 5 chatbots tested in 2 versions persisted less than older versions (each P

原文链接:https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.21253

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