On Tuesday afternoon, three parents sat in a row before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. Two of them had each recently lost a child to suicide; the third has a teenage son who, after cutting his arm in front of her and biting her, is undergoing residential treatment. All three blame generative AI for what has happened to their children.

They had come to testify on what appears to be an emerging health crisis in teens’ interactions with AI chatbots. “What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach,” said Matthew Raine, whose 16-year-old son hanged himself after ChatGPT instructed him on how to set up the noose, according to his lawsuit against OpenAI. This summer, he and his wife sued OpenAI for wrongful deat

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