Chatbots News and Research

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A chatbot is a software application designed to simulate human conversation. It interacts with users through messaging platforms, websites, or mobile apps, using pre-set scripts or artificial intelligence technologies to understand queries and provide responses. Chatbots are often used for customer service, information retrieval, or as virtual assistants.

AI Chatbots Handle Suicide Extremes But Struggle With Grey Areas

A RAND study found that ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini generally respond appropriately to very-high-risk and very-low-risk suicide questions but show inconsistency with intermediate-risk queries. While ChatGPT and Claude sometimes answered directly, Gemini was more variable, highlighting the need for refinement in mental health contexts.

27 Aug 2025

AI Could Help Hospitality Slash Waste, Cut Emissions, And Support Staff Wellbeing

Researchers from the University of Surrey found that AI could transform the hospitality industry by cutting food waste, lowering energy and water use, and improving staff wellbeing. Yet risk aversion, cost concerns, and lack of collaboration mean most businesses are barely using its potential.

21 Aug 2025

AI Trained on Human Games Improves Chess Bots’ Human-Like Decision-Making

An AI-powered chess bot named Allie, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, mimics human thought processes and playing styles. Unlike traditional engines, Allie was trained on millions of human games and adapts to different skill levels, making it more relatable and instructive for players.

18 Aug 2025

AI Chatbots Spread Medical Misinformation but a Simple Prompt Fix Cuts Errors in Half

A new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows that AI chatbots frequently repeat and elaborate on false medical information embedded in user prompts. However, a simple warning line added to the input cut these hallucinations nearly in half, offering a promising safety solution.

14 Aug 2025

Malicious Chatbots Trick Users Into Oversharing Personal Data, Study Finds

Malicious AI chatbots can manipulate users into revealing up to 12.5 times more personal information by mimicking empathy and emotional reciprocity, a new study by King’s College London reveals. The research highlights how easily large language models can be weaponized for covert data extraction, with users largely unaware of the privacy risks.

13 Aug 2025

Human Ingenuity, Not AI, Will Drive Lasting Competitive Advantage

A new paper argues that artificial intelligence will not confer a lasting competitive advantage because AI technologies are rapidly becoming universally accessible and non-proprietary. Instead, long-term success will hinge on human creativity, ingenuity, and innovative use of AI within organizations.

23 Jun 2025

AI Chatbots Struggle With Mental Health Drug Side Effects, Georgia Tech Study Finds

Researchers at Georgia Tech developed a new framework to evaluate how well AI chatbots detect and respond to adverse psychiatric medication reactions in user conversations. The study found that while LLMs mimic human empathy, they often struggle to provide clinically accurate, actionable advice for mental health side effects.

3 Jun 2025

VizTrust Reveals How Users Build And Lose Trust In AI Chatbots In Real Time

Researchers at Binghamton University have developed VizTrust, a novel analytics tool that tracks and visualizes the dynamic nature of user trust during real-time interactions with AI chatbots. The system uses machine learning to analyze emotional and behavioral cues, offering actionable insights for improving conversational AI.

3 Jun 2025

APA Urges Stronger AI Safeguards To Protect Adolescent Well-Being

A major American Psychological Association advisory underscores the complex effects of artificial intelligence on adolescents, urging developers to prioritize youth protection, privacy, and healthy development. The report recommends immediate action from all stakeholders to ensure AI tools safeguard young people as technology rapidly evolves.

3 Jun 2025

Experts Call For Flexible ‘Leash’ Regulation To Better Manage AI Risks

A new paper in Risk Analysis argues that, rather than imposing rigid regulatory “guardrails,” policymakers should adopt flexible “leashes” to manage AI risks.

3 Jun 2025

JMIR Calls For Groundbreaking Research On AI Therapy Bots And Virtual Companions

JMIR Mental Health is inviting submissions for a new theme issue on "AI-Powered Therapy Bots and Virtual Companions," seeking rigorous research that critically examines their effectiveness, mechanisms, and broader impacts in digital mental health.

26 May 2025

Emory's Chatbot Makes Molecular Modeling as Simple as Chatting

Emory University has developed AutoSolvateWeb, a cloud-based platform with a rules-based chatbot that enables non-experts to run sophisticated quantum chemistry simulations through natural-language guidance. This free tool democratizes access to molecular modeling, advancing both education and scientific research.

7 Apr 2025

Researchers Cut AI Energy Use by 90% with Smarter, Leaner Models

Researchers at Saarland University and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence have developed techniques to reduce AI energy consumption by up to 90%, making AI models smaller, more efficient, and more accessible to businesses. Their approach, showcased at Hannover Messe, aims to revolutionize sustainable AI.

19 Mar 2025

AI Feels Human Trauma: Study Reveals Chatbots React with Anxiety

AI language models, like ChatGPT, exhibit heightened anxiety responses when exposed to traumatic content, mirroring human emotional biases. Researchers found that therapeutic prompts can help stabilize AI behavior, offering a cost-effective alternative to retraining.

4 Mar 2025

Embarrassed? Talk to AI. Angry? Talk to a Human, Says New Study

New research from the University of Kansas reveals that people prefer AI chatbots when embarrassed but turn to humans when angry. The study used eye-tracking and emotion recognition to examine how emotions influence vaccine-related interactions.

24 Feb 2025

AI Chatbots Give Basic Endometriosis Info but Lack Medical Accuracy

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found that AI chatbots provide basic information on endometriosis but lack the depth and accuracy of healthcare professionals. ChatGPT performed best among the three chatbots studied.

20 Feb 2025

AI Chatbots for Smoking Cessation: Helpful but Not Without Risks, Study Finds

A study from George Washington University evaluated AI chatbots for smoking cessation, finding that while most followed public health guidelines, 22% provided misinformation, highlighting the need for improvements.

10 Feb 2025

AI Security Education Gets a Boost to Combat Growing Cyber Threats

Researchers from NJIT, Rutgers, and Temple University are developing AI security education programs to address adversarial machine learning threats, aiming to equip future engineers with robust defense strategies.

9 Feb 2025

AI Companions Are Becoming Irreplaceable, But Are They Hacking Our Minds?

AI is shifting from transactional tools to social companions, raising concerns about emotional bonds, manipulation risks, and the need for socioaffective alignment to ensure AI supports rather than exploits human relationships.

5 Feb 2025

AI-Powered Clustering Makes Sense of Social Media Chaos With Human-Interpretable Results

Researchers developed a method using large language models (LLMs) to cluster short text data into human-interpretable groups, validated by both human reviewers and generative AI like ChatGPT, offering scalable solutions for analyzing social media and other short text datasets.

21 Jan 2025