OpenAI partners with the American Psychological Association on youth mental health and AI

OpenAI is working with the American Psychological Association (APA) to bring psychological science into how it develops AI products used by young people, with an initial focus on resources for parents, caregivers, and clinicians navigating teen AI use.

OpenAI wrote: "That's why we're working with the American Psychological Association (APA) to bring psychological science into how we think about responsible AI development and use among young people. APA is the leading scientific and professional organization for psychology in the United States, whose evidence-grounded work will help clarify what is known, what is uncertain, and what responsible AI should look like as the technology evolves."

What's new

The collaboration builds on a convening OpenAI co-hosted earlier this year with the APA that brought together mental health organizations, researchers, clinicians, educators, and youth representatives. OpenAI says the work will span several areas:

• How AI can support young people in moments of distress.
• How products can be made more developmentally appropriate.
• How parents, caregivers, and clinicians can be better equipped to guide young people's AI use.

Two concrete workstreams are planned. For families, OpenAI and APA will develop family-facing resources to help parents recognize when adult intervention is warranted and reinforce AI as a tool rather than a replacement for people or care, with a goal of making that guidance broadly accessible across school communities. For practitioners, the two organizations will produce resources for clinicians and school psychologists on promoting healthy AI usage, recognizing overreliance, and intervening in unhealthy use patterns.

OpenAI also says it will convene teens, families, clinicians, and school psychologists directly to understand how AI-related questions are surfacing in schools, therapy, and family settings, and where current systems fall short.

Dr. Sara Johansen, OpenAI's head of mental health and well-being product policy, said: "Technology is part of teens' lives, and our responsibility is to meet that reality with experiences that are safe, age-appropriate, and designed with families in mind. AI should strengthen—not replace—the real-world relationships and care young people rely on."

Context

OpenAI frames this as an extension of existing safety work: the company says it works with more than 260 mental health experts to help ChatGPT recognize signs of distress and respond with care, and has already rolled out localized crisis resources, one-click hotlines, break reminders, parental controls, safety-concern notifications to parents, under-18 principles in its Model Spec, and an age-prediction model to apply age-appropriate safeguards. Youth AI safety has drawn sustained regulatory and media scrutiny industry-wide through 2026, with chatbot companies facing pressure over how their products interact with minors.

Why it matters

Bringing in an outside scientific body like the APA gives OpenAI's youth-safety claims an independent, evidence-based backstop rather than relying solely on internal policy language — a distinction that matters as lawmakers and parents scrutinize how AI chatbots handle vulnerable young users. The practical deliverables (family guidance, clinician resources, school-community materials) suggest OpenAI expects AI use by teens to keep expanding and is trying to get ahead of the support infrastructure question before it becomes a bigger liability or regulatory flashpoint.