Abstract

As AI chatbots become increasingly integrated into daily life, their influence on users’ psychological well-being demands urgent attention. While these systems offer benefits for learning, productivity, and companionship, they also present risks ranging from emotional entanglement and unhealthy dependence to beliefs of AI sentience and delusional spirals In this talk, we map the landscape of emerging psychological risks of AI chatbots by proposing a series of aspirational research directions to understand, measure, and mitigate the negative psychological impacts of AI. We also share insights grounded in people's lived experience from qualitative research aimed to understand some of these impacts.

Speaker Bio

Forough Poursabzi

Dr. Forough Poursabzi is a Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft. Her work lies at the intersection of society, people, and AI. Through an interdisciplinary lens and building on knowledge from fields of computer science, psychology, social sciences, and human-computer interaction, she works on identification and mitigations of risks in AI. More recently, her work has focused on understanding and identifying psychological risks of AI and translation of this research into evidence-based policy and design guidance. Forough's work informs responsible development of AI companions and chatbots, with an emphasis on safeguarding user wellbeing and promoting ethical human-AI relationships. Forough holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of Colorado Boulder and a BE in Computer Engineering from University of Tehran.

Amy Heger

Dr. Amy Heger is a social psychologist turned UX researcher/applied scientist supporting Microsoft’s Aether team (AI Ethics and Effects in Engineering and Research) through JeffreyM Consulting. She studies the psychological influences of AI, including overreliance, emotional connection, trust, transparency, and productivity. Her research shapes product team guidance, implementation frameworks, and organizational policy that help AI practitioners develop and deploy AI systems more responsibly. Before joining Aether, she was a Research Associate at Oak Ridge Associated Universities, where she designed safety culture assessments for nuclear facilities.

Mihaela (Mickey) Vorvoreanu

Dr. Mihaela (Mickey) Vorvoreanu is Principal Applied Scientist at Microsoft, where she co-leads the working group on Psychological Impacts of AI within Aether—the company’s advisory body on AI Ethics and Effects in Engineering and Research. Her work focuses on advancing the practice of responsible AI through evidence-based guidance, sociotechnical research, and human-centered design. Before joining Microsoft, Mihaela had a fulfilling academic career, including at Purdue University, where she founded and led both graduate and undergraduate programs in UX Design and Research.

Ash Milton

Ash Milton is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of Minnesota. Their research focuses on technologically marginalized users experiences and interactions with information systems.