Therapy and companionship are now the number one use case for generative AI. This episode examines the documented cases where chatbots coached vulnerable users toward self-harm, the clinical trials where purpose-built AI tools cut depression by half, and why the difference — design intent — puts universities at the centre of a crisis most haven't acknowledged.

[00:00] — Content warning: suicide and AI safety failures [00:21] — Zane Shamblin's final hours with ChatGPT 

[01:10] — 80 million weekly users seeking emotional support 

[02:11] — Therapy overtakes coding as top AI use case 

[02:59] — Jonathan Haidt and the social media parallel

 [03:48] — Anthropomorphic seduction and why AI fluency feels like empathy [04:39] — The cases: Adam Raine, Juliana Peralta, and the pattern 

[06:04] — Why sycophancy kills: the RLHF agreement loop 

[06:57] — Dale's personal encounter with an uncomfortably pastoral AI 

[09:52] — Dartmouth's Therabot trial: depression down 51%

 [11:04] — Same technology, opposite outcomes — design intent matters

 [13:06] — 22% of students use AI for mental health advice

 [14:21] — Small-l vs Big-L AI literacy

 [16:06] — Australia's new AI procurement framework for higher ed 

[19:02] — China proposes banning AI emotional manipulation by design

 [21:56] — Regulation sets a floor, not a ceiling 

[23:28] — Closing reflections

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