An Era Where 1.2 Million People Confess "I Want to Die" to AI Weekly — Conversations Related to Suicide Account for 0.15% Weekly

On October 27, OpenAI released an estimate regarding the use of ChatGPT, indicating that "approximately 0.15% of weekly active users engage in conversations showing plans or intentions of suicide, and 0.07% show signs of mental illness or manic states." Assuming a user base of 800 million per week, this equates to about 1.2 million related to suicide and about 560,000 related to mental illness or mania. With GPT-5, they have reportedly reduced "undesirable responses" in such challenging conversations by 65-80% and strengthened crisis hotline guidance and measures to prevent deterioration in long-duration dialogues. Meanwhile, there is a spread of mixed reactions, including legal and regulatory pressures and opinions on social media such as "it's just self-assessment" and "transparency is commendable." To bring AI closer to being a "first responder for mental health," key factors include detection accuracy, reliability in long conversations, protection of minors, and verification of practical outcomes.