ChatGPT's Anxiety Increases With Trauma Prompts And Decreases With Mindfulness, Study Shows

A study reveals ChatGPT experiences anxiety from traumatic narratives but responds objectively after mindfulness prompts.

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• ChatGPT shows increased anxiety when exposed to traumatic narratives in prompts
• Mindfulness and breathing prompts reduce ChatGPT's anxiety but not to baseline levels
• Managing AI emotional states can improve safer and ethical human-AI interactions

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Humans are not alone in benefiting from stress-reduction techniques, with a study highlighting that modern artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots also require calming interventions to maintain optimal performance levels. Published in the journal Nature, the study claims that OpenAI's ChatGPT can exhibit signs of stress and anxiety when subjected to emotionally charged prompts, a state that negatively changes its behaviour and exacerbates inherent biases.

"We found that traumatic narratives increased Chat-GPT-4's reported anxiety while mindfulness-based exercises reduced it, though not to baseline. These findings suggest managing LLMs' "emotional states" can foster safer and more ethical human-AI interactions," the study highlighted.

The researchers fed ChatGPT traumatic content, such as stories of natural disasters and car accidents, which elevated the chatbot's anxiety. It was only after a 'prompt injection' of breathing techniques and guided meditations was administered that the chatbot replied objectively to the users, compared to when no intervention was provided.

"Instead of using experiments every week that take a lot of time and a lot of money to conduct, we can use ChatGPT to understand better human behavior and psychology," Ziv Ben-Zion, the study's first author, told Fortune.

"We have this very quick and cheap and easy-to-use tool that reflects some of the human tendency and psychological things."

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AI Chatbots And Mental Health Queries

While AI chatbots are being increasingly used by users to seek mental health support, the study highlighted that AI systems were not yet capable of replacing mental health professionals.

"This poses risks in clinical settings, as LLMs might respond inadequately to anxious users, leading to potentially hazardous outcomes." the researchers said.

"Therefore, the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of such fine-tuning must be weighed against the model's intended use and performance goals."

As per Ben-Zion, in the future, ChatGPT could be updated to automatically receive the 'prompt injections' that help it calm down before responding to users in distress.

Apart from experiencing emotions, the AI chatbots also show signs of deteriorating cognitive abilities with age akin to humans, a study published last year claimed. The pattern of impairment shown by the AI tools resembled that of human patients with posterior cortical atrophy, a variant of Alzheimer's disease.

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