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Citation
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Arendt F, Till B, Voracek M, Kirchner S, Sonneck G, Naderer B, Pürcher P, Niederkrotenthaler T. Crisis 2023; 44(5): 367-370. |
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Abstract
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There is an ever-increasing speed in digital transformation, including health communication and healthcare. ChatGPT is one of the most recent milestones in this regard, having been introduced to the public by OpenAI in November 2022. Although ChatGPT is still under development, it is likely that we will face a widespread rollout of such tools during the next few years.
ChatGPT is one of the latest innovations that will make accessibility of health information even easier and low-threshold. As a so-called large language model, ChatGPT has been trained with machine learning approaches on a vast amount of text-based content available online, enabling it to perform various natural language processing tasks. The features of ChatGPT are similar to Internet search engines such as Google, but, over and above that, users also have the opportunity to interact with it. If users ask any question, ChatGPT will reply, which can potentially start a conversation between the users and ChatGPT. Users can freely decide on their topic, and on the length and language of the conversation, and ChatGPT is available to them 24/7. Although the applied large language model has its limitations, such as its inability to generate new thoughts - any content has to be already freely available online - it appears that a point has now been reached in human history at which artificial intelligence can make substantial contributions to the healthcare process. It is reasonable to expect that the performance of artificial intelligence-based tools will further increase in the near future.
Numerous experts have expressed concerns that ChatGPT (or its relatives) will substantially transform our digital social reality. Even today, in a time before the large-scale diffusion of this innovation, the New York Times, for example, has noted that ChatGPT may substantially change how people work, which might be scary for many who believe that it will replace some of their jobs (Jackson, 2023). Furthermore, lawmakers may fail to keep pace as such artificial intelligence tools are becoming more and more powerful (Kang & Satariano, 2023). One politician even stated that he was "freaked out" by the ability of ChatGPT to mimic human writers (Sorkin et al., 2023). Indeed, ChatGPT seems to have the potential for a substantial societal impact on a global scale.
Toward the Role of ChatGPT for Suicide Prevention
As interdisciplinarily minded suicide prevention experts from different fields (encompassing public health research, medical science, epidemiology, communication science, psychological science, and evidence synthesis), we observe and follow developments in the digital world that may act as risk or protective factors for suicide...
Language: en |