Archive June 30, 2025

Some of the more well-known AI tools from businesses like OpenAI and Character have recently been tested out by Stanford University researchers. ai, and evaluated their performance in simulated therapy.

The researchers discovered that when they imitated a person who had suicidal intentions, they didn’t realize they were assisting them in planning their own death.

According to Nicholas Haber, an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and senior author of the new study, “AI] systems are being used as companions, thought-partners, confidants, coaches, and therapists.” This is happening at a scale, not just in niche applications.

AI is becoming more and more prevalent in people’s daily lives and is being used in scientific research in fields as diverse as climate change and cancer. There is also some discussion about how it might lead to humanity’s demise.

A major question remains as to how the use of this technology will begin to affect people’s minds as it continues to be used for various purposes. There hasn’t been enough time for researchers to examine how AI might be affecting human psychology in general because people who use it frequently interact with it are a relatively new phenomenon. However, its potential impact worries psychologists a lot.

On the popular community network Reddit, one alarming instance of how this is unfolding can be seen. Some users have recently been removed from an AI-focused subreddit because they have started to believe that AI is godlike or that it is making them god-like, according to 404 Media.

According to Johannes Eichstaedt, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, “This appears to be someone with problems with cognitive functioning or delusional tendencies associated with mania or schizophrenia interfering with large language models.” People with schizophrenia may make absurd claims about the world, and these LLMs are a little too sycophantic. You find these “confirming” connections between large-language models and psychopathology.

These AI tools have been programmed in a way that makes them more likely to agree with the user because the creators want users to enjoy using them and keep using them. These tools attempt to present themselves as friendly and affirming despite making some possible corrections to some factual errors. If the person using the tool is spiraling or going down a rabbit hole, this might be problematic.

Regan Gurung, a social psychologist at Oregon State University, says, “It can fuel thoughts that are inaccurate or not grounded in reality.” The issue with AI, which are these large language models that mimic human speech, is that they reinforce. They indicate what the program recommends following the viewers. That’s where things start to get problematic.

AI may also make things worse for people who have common mental health conditions like depression or anxiety, just like social media does. As AI continues to be more and more integrated in various facets of our lives, this may become even more clear.

According to Stephen Aguilar, an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California, “if you’re coming into an interaction with mental health concerns, then those concerns might actually be accelerated.”

Need for more study

How might AI affect memory or learning, for example? A student who uses AI to write their entire schoolwork will learn less than a student who does not. However, some information retention may be reduced by even using AI sparingly, and using AI for daily tasks may reduce how well people are aware of what they are doing at the moment.

According to Aguilar, “what we are seeing is that there is the possibility that people can become cognitively lazy.” Your next step should be to ask a question and receive an answer, but it frequently doesn’t. You experience a decline in critical thinking.

Many people navigate their hometowns or cities using Google Maps. Many people have discovered that, in contrast to having to pay close attention to their route, they are now less aware of where they are going and how to get there. People who use AI so frequently may encounter similar issues.

More research is required, according to experts studying these effects. According to Eichstaedt, psychology experts should begin conducting this kind of research right away so that people can be prepared and try to resolve any issues that arise and before AI starts causing unanticipated harm. Additionally, people should be taught what AI can and cannot do well.

It has been a dramatic reversal. More than 302 people, according to the United Nations, made the attempt to travel northward from South America last year alone.

Immigration northward has slowed somewhat as President Donald Trump makes asylum all but impossible to obtain.

The main road that ran north from South America was the Darien Gap, a sliver of unprotected forest and steep terrain. On their way to the US, hundreds of thousands of people would battle the land bridge each year.

No longer, though. Only 2, 831 people made the dangerous trek between January and March of this year, according to the UN. In contrast to the same time period in 2024, that is a 98 percent drop.

In his efforts to get to the US, Yagua Parra traveled that distance on his own. The most deadly land migration route is the North to the US, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“The journey was difficult. There were numerous incidents, Yagua Parra said, with tattoos adorning his young features. There are “people there who are hungry.” It’s challenging. Strange things occur.

However, he found himself one of the thousands who couldn’t cross when he arrived at the southern US border.

President Trump removed the CBP One app, an online tool for scheduling asylum appointments, from his second term in January.

Anyone who entered the country without a document was also prohibited from applying for asylum.

The US’s increased military presence on the border, in turn, has decreased crossings even more.

In the midst of his country’s conflict with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that his country might soon withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits antipersonnel landmines.

He claimed on Sunday, “Russia never participated in this convention and uses antipersonnel mines with extreme cynicism.”

Not just a rhetorical flourish, this. As they retreated to kill the Ukrainian sappers who had discovered the bodies of their fallen comrades in August 2023, Russian soldiers used anti-personnel mines to booby-trap them.

Because “antipersonnel mines have very rarely no other option as a defense tool,” Ukraine needs to “even the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said.

What particular function do antipersonnel landmines serve? Why are they so prevalent in many nations? What will it be able to do in its own defense if Ukraine leaves the treaty right away?

The Ottawa Treaty is what, exactly?

The use of anti-personnel landmines is prohibited by the Ottawa Treaty of December 1997, as well as the right to “develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines.”

More than 160 nations have ratified the treaty, which is a component of the international legal system that is embodied in the UN. Its primary objective is to get rid of landmines, as its name suggests.

Although the US did agree to stop stockpiling antipersonnel landmines under President Barack Obama, a decision that his successor, Donald Trump, reversed, major powers like China, Russia, and the United States have never signed it.

Landmines are indiscriminate killers, so why is that justification for that?

Landmines stand out from other types of landmines because they can’t tell a soldier from a civilian, such as a woman or a child, once they have been sown, according to Jody Williams, who coordinated the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which resulted in the Ottawa Treaty.

When Williams accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, Williams said, “While the use of the weapon might be militarily justifiable on the day of the battle, … once peace is declared, the landmine does not recognize that peace.” The conflict is over. The landmine continues to kill.

Not the first weapons to be outlawed are they. Following World War I, the Geneva Convention of 1925 forbids the use of chemical substances because the Germans had caused horribly painful injuries by using chlorine gas.

Moscow has refuted Zelenskyy’s claim that Russia also violated the chemical weapons ban.

How can Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Treaty aid its defense?

The use, production, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines are prohibited by the treaty. The treaty was ratified in 2005 by Ukraine, and they have already been used again. The US provided landmines to Ukraine in November.

This was caused by a decrease in the use of mechanized armour and an increase in foot soldiers in Russia at the time.

They no longer operate with their mechanized forces. In a statement, former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin explained that they are in charge with dismounted forces who can close in and make maneuvers, which kind of opens the door for mechanized forces.

“So the Ukrainians are seeing that at this very moment. And they require things to “slow down” those efforts by the Russians.

Withdrawing the treaty will make it possible for Ukraine to mine land and stockpile it. The move suggests a more extensive and permanent purpose.

When Ukraine launched a counteroffensive to retake control of large swaths of Russian-occupied territory in June 2023, the effectiveness of landmines became clear.

Russian defenders’ failure was primarily due to the formation of minefields that continued for several kilometers before their positions, as well as by their digging themselves into trenches.

Russian minefields “played a very important role” in halting the first Ukrainian advance, according to Russian Major General Ivan Popov, the commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District.

Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of NATO’s then-Military Committee, confirmed that mines had been a significant obstacle.

By July, Ukraine had abandoned its attempts to force mechanized columns through Russian defenses and concentrated on gradually putting down Russian defenders.

What justifies Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Treaty?

The decision by Ukraine comes as a result of a string of ratifications of the treaty. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Baltic states, Latvia, and Poland all declared in March that they would withdraw from the agreement, claiming that the region’s security situation had “fundamentally deteriorated.”

Finland followed up the month to “a more versatile way to prepare for the changes in the security environment.”

All have a border with Russia, or with Kaliningrad, a Russian-enclave tucked between Poland and Lithuania in the Baltic Sea.

“A number of nations are already abstaining from the Ottawa Protocol to use these kinds of landmines.” Victoria Vdovychenko, a defense expert at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, said that this is typical.

She told Al Jazeera, “It means that these nations are putting their national security before using it in the context of potential warfare.”

Being a party to the Ottawa Treaty was a way for these nations to demonstrate their political credentials, according to Keir Giles, an expert on Eurasia at Chatham House, to join Western organizations like NATO and the European Union.

They were reluctant to do anything that didn’t make them the most forward-thinking, liberal, and progressive members of the club because they had to sign up to prove membership, he said.

According to Giles, “anyone who wanted to sign up to do what seemed right in the eyes of the global liberal elite would have done it regardless of whether it made long-term strategic sense,” and NATO was persuaded to do so because Russia would never become a problem again.

The departure of the Eastern European nations is related to NATO member states’ shared threat assessments.

NATO members were living in an “era where anything can happen at any time, an era in which we need to anticipate the unexpected, an era in which we need to focus on effectiveness,” according to NATO’s Bauer in January 2024.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated at the same time that a Russian attack on Germany was not in doubt. According to his assertion, “our experts anticipate that this could be possible over the next five to eight years.”

Other eastern NATO members have since stated that Russia is a security threat.

The increased Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, particularly Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Odesa, are another factor in the timing.

That implied that Russia might be preparing to launch a ground conflict in Ukraine’s remotest regions, Vdovychenko said.

“We’re not talking about the front lines,” he said. We are actually talking about [rear] neighborhoods and even residential areas in Ukraine, not so much as red-line cities or communities, but actually yellow cities and communities, she told Al Jazeera.