Plus: Pope Leo's encyclical on artificial intelligence
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Lead story In most states, if a patient in a therapy session threatens to harm someone, the therapist has a legal duty to notify authorities and ensure that the intended target is warned. Meanwhile, many people turn to AI chatbots for mental health support – or to get advice on how to commit acts of violence. This raises an important question: Should AI companies also have a duty to warn? Several high-profile cases of people killing others or themselves after interacting with chatbots show that this is not an abstract question. AI companies sometimes find themselves with the same information that would require a human therapist to warn authorities. Drexel University law professor Anat Lior explains that the therapist’s duty to warn could be a model for AI companies, but also lays out the challenges of taking the practice from human–human interactions to interactions between millions of people and a set of computer algorithms. [ Sign up for our weekly Global Economy & Business newsletter, with expert perspectives from around the world. ] |
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Eric Smalley Science + Technology Editor |
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Students hold a vigil near the scene of a shooting at Florida State University. The gunman allegedly consulted ChatGPT about how to carry out the attack. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
Anat Lior, Drexel University Human therapists have a legal duty to warn authorities and potential targets when patients say they plan to harm someone. The same can – in theory – be required of AI chatbots . |
Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, at the Vatican on May 25, 2026. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
Nathan Schneider, University of Colorado Boulder Leo XIV released his first encyclical on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, the 1891 papal document on the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution. |
Health + Medicine |
Dara Kass, Brown University; Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler, Brown University; Stephanie Psaki, Brown University Medications used to perform abortions are also widely used to treat severe pregnancy complications, as well as several conditions unrelated to childbirth. |
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Economy + Business |
Pragati Awasthi, Drexel University AI is now the machine deciding whether your payment goes through. And when it makes a mistake, the system isn’t designed to tell you why. |
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Arts + Culture |
Scott Parrott, University of South Carolina Research shows athlete disclosures about their mental health can encourage people to seek help and talk honestly about mental illness. But heckling and backlash threaten that progress.
💬 Comments open Cesar R. Torres, Penn State Global soccer was in the doldrums in the early 1990s – with poor ethics and boring defensive tactics. Then FIFA set about changing the game. |
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Politics + Society |
Ernesto Sagás, Colorado State University Latinos were the first Coloradans, and yet they are portrayed by the administration as intruders in an era of immigration enforcement.
💬 Comments open |
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Environment + Energy |
Eric Palkovacs, University of California, Santa Cruz; Steven T. Lindley, University of California, Santa Cruz Salmon have faced a boom-bust cycle for years. Making their recovery last longer will require some big changes, including how hatcheries produce fish. David Boutt, UMass Amherst Even though annual precipitation is rising nationally, the landscape is drying out more rapidly. That’s changing the water cycle. Jennie L. Durant, University of California, Davis When honey bees get sick, their beekeepers turn to the nation’s premier bee research and disease diagnosis lab for help. That crucial resource is now disappearing. Owen D. Jones, Vanderbilt University When people harness the logic of natural selection, they can often find efficient and effective ways to solve complex problems. |
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