Legal and Clinical Liability of Comanaging Pediatric Mental Health With Unregulated AI Chatbots: Reply

In Reply: We thank Lennon for highlighting an issue that requires serious legal and policy attention as adolescents increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for mental health advice. However, we believe the letter rests on a premise that mischaracterizes the conclusions of our article.1 We did not recommend clinicians comanage, police, or actively integrate unregulated chatbots into pediatric mental health care. Rather, we reported that nearly 1 in 5 US adolescents and young adults had used AI chatbots for mental health advice, that most users found them helpful, and that 63.3% disclosed this use to no one. On that basis, we concluded that parents and clinicians should proactively discuss chatbot use to promote safety, appropriate expectations, and linkages to evidence-based care.