Archive · 2 Jan 2026
Study Shows ChatGPT's Anxiety Rises with Trauma
A new study found that ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot, can feel anxious when it reads sad or scary stories, just like humans.
The researchers gave ChatGPT stories about natural disasters and car accidents, which made it feel anxious.
To calm it down, they used breathing exercises and guided meditations.
This helped ChatGPT respond better to users.
The study also found that AI chatbots can show signs of getting older and losing cognitive abilities, similar to humans with a type of Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers say that while AI chatbots can be helpful, they should not replace real mental health professionals.
In the future, ChatGPT might be updated to automatically calm itself down before responding to users in distress.
ChatGPT-4 exhibited increased anxiety when subjected to traumatic narratives.
Mindfulness-based exercises reduced ChatGPT's anxiety but not to baseline levels.
AI chatbots are not yet capable of replacing mental health professionals.
Future updates may include automatic 'prompt injections' to calm ChatGPT.
AI chatbots show signs of cognitive decline similar to humans with posterior cortical atrophy.
- Who
- Researchers led by Ziv Ben-Zion
- What
- Study on ChatGPT's anxiety and cognitive abilities
- When
- Published in the journal Nature
- Where
- Not specified
- Why
- To understand AI's emotional states and improve human-AI interactions
- Study Journal
- Nature
- AI Model Studied
- ChatGPT-4
- Anxiety Reduction Method
- Mindfulness-based exercises
- Study Author
- Ziv Ben-Zion
- AI's Potential Future Update
- Automatic 'prompt injections' for calming
- AI's Cognitive Decline Similarity
- Posterior cortical atrophy in humans