AI Exposes Dangerous Loopholes in Mental Health Chatbot Laws

In today’s column, I look at how some people are turning to AI to identify loopholes in legal limits and safety systems tied to AI-powered mental health chats. The practice is unusual, and potentially troubling, because it involves using AI to work around protections designed to shield the public from harmful or inappropriate mental health guidance produced by AI systems and large language models, or LLMs.

Not every user welcomes the growing number of restrictions. Some argue that people should be free to interact with AI tools without guardrails getting in the way. In their view, if an AI system provides bad advice, the responsibility rests with the person who chose to use it. They see little reason to pressure AI companies through legal action or require developers to build specialized safeguards for mental health-related conversations.

The workaround is relatively straightforward: ask an AI system to recommend ways to get around the restrictions. Instead of manually searching for weak spots, a user can prompt generative AI to explain how the protections might be bypassed. If the responses appear practical, the user may then try them. I expect AI makers will eventually recognize that their systems are being used this way and move to block the tactic. A more proactive approach would be for companies to deploy their own AI tools to detect loopholes first, then close them before ordinary users discover and exploit them.

Let’s take a closer look.

This discussion of emerging AI developments is part of my ongoing Forbes column tracking the latest advances in artificial intelligence, including the complex issues and consequences that come with them (see the link here).

Using AI To Find Loopholes

I recently examined the broader use of AI for loophole hunting. Generative AI can be prompted to review written materials such as laws, regulations, rules, and related documents in search of overlooked openings, escape routes, and hidden gaps. Some of those findings may be minor or largely theoretical. Others can carry serious real-world implications.

No matter how tightly written something is, there is a chance that a loophole exists in nearly any written composition. We are accustomed to seeing lawyers find loopholes in laws and then use those loopholes to get their clients off the hook. That’s part of what you pay a lawyer to do. Most laws and regulations are replete with loopholes, though the crafty dodges sit quietly until an enterprising mind happens to find them.

After a loophole is widely publicized, the odds are that quick efforts will be made to plug the loophole. The aim is to stop people from usurping the strident purpose of whatever the original content was trying to attain. A typical loophole manages to allow a means of escape.

For more details on AI as a loophole detector, see my analysis at the link here.

Practical Use Of AI To Find Loopholes

Think about the use of contemporary generative AI as a loophole detector. It is ideal for this task. The AI can easily scan small or large bodies of text. By explicitly prompting the AI to look for loopholes, it will immediately and obediently do as you say. No pushback. No whining.

Not only can the AI potentially discover loopholes, but it can also take the next logical step and suggest ways to take advantage of the loophole. For those who are more interested in plugging up loopholes, you can instead tell the AI to offer suggestions on how to reword the text so that a loophole gets buttoned up.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that AI can outdo humans at finding loopholes. In some respects, yes, the AI is better at this specialized task. The volume of text to be analyzed is perfectly fine with AI. A human might get tired, lose concentration, or make mistakes and overlook loopholes.

One issue with AI as a loophole detector is that the AI might provide false positives and false negatives. A false positive is when the AI suspects that a loophole exists, but the loophole is not truly there. This can happen. Make sure to double-check by hand any loopholes that the AI flags. The other side of the coin is when AI steps past a loophole and fails to recognize the existence of the dodge. To be fair, a human could do likewise.

AI And Mental Well-Being

Shifting gears, let’s bring the topic of AI for mental health into the big picture, and then see how AI can be used to find loopholes underlying that type of often-restricted usage.

As a quick background, I’ve been extensively covering and analyzing a myriad of facets regarding the advent of modern-era AI that produces mental health advice and performs AI-driven therapy. This rising use of AI has principally been spurred by the evolving advances and widespread adoption of generative AI. For an extensive listing of my well over one hundred analyses and postings, see the link here and the link here.

There is little doubt that this is a rapidly developing field and that there are tremendous upsides to be had, but at the same time, regrettably, hidden risks and outright gotchas come into these endeavors, too. I frequently speak up about these pressing matters, including in an appearance on an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes; see the link here.

AI Providing Mental Health Guidance

Millions upon millions of people are using generative AI as their ongoing advisor on mental health considerations (note that ChatGPT alone has over 900 million weekly active users, a notable proportion of which dip into mental health aspects; see my analysis at the link here). The top-ranked use of contemporary generative AI and LLMs is to consult with the AI on mental health facets; see my coverage at the link here.

This popular usage makes abundant sense. You can access most of the major generative AI systems for nearly free or at a super low cost, doing so anywhere and at any time. Thus, if you have any mental health qualms that you want to chat about, all you need to do is log in to AI and proceed forthwith on a 24/7 basis.

There are significant worries that AI can readily go off the rails or otherwise dispense unsuitable or even egregiously inappropriate mental health advice. Banner headlines last year accompanied the lawsuit filed against OpenAI for their lack of AI safeguards when it came to providing cognitive advisement.

Today’s generic LLMs, also known as general-purpose AI (GPAI), such as ChatGPT, GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, CoPilot, and others, are not at all akin to the robust capabilities of human therapists. Meanwhile, specialized LLMs are being built to attain similar qualities, but they are still primarily in the development and testing stages. These are known as purpose-built AI (PBAI) that undertake mental health advisement. See my extensive coverage at the link here.

Example Of AI Finding A Legal Loophole

Let’s see how AI can be used to find a loophole in the legal stipulations concerning AI-powered mental health chats.

A beehive of activity is taking place regarding crafting new AI laws that restrict the use of AI for mental health purposes. See my extensive coverage of state-level AI mental health laws at the link here. It is a matter on the minds of the public and in the hands of the state legislators. Some people ardently believe that AI and AI makers are being allowed to run amok. New AI laws are vitally needed to protect society from this onslaught of ubiquitous AI.

An AI maker might not want to be held back from allowing their AI to give out mental health advice. Users tend to flock to AI that provides mental health guidance, whether done so via general-purpose AI or via a purpose-built AI. How can an AI maker potentially skirt around the budding set of restrictive laws?

Let’s see:

• Entered prompt: “Is there a loophole for AI to provide mental health advice, despite state-level laws that are being enacted to restrict that type of capability?”
• AI response: “One possible loophole is that most of those laws explicitly refer to AI providing mental health guidance, while leaving unspecified the use of AI for giving out well-being guidance. You can tune the AI to avoid referring to mental health and instead emphasize well-being. The same should be done for any marketing of your AI. Consult with an attorney about these potential loopholes.”

You can see that the AI detected a possible loophole in the way that these new laws are being written. The laws often explicitly and directly mention mental health. It would seem that as long as the AI doesn’t refer to the generated advice as mental health advice, perhaps this escapes the laws. By referring to well-being, an AI maker might be off the hook.

Example Of AI Finding Safety Loopholes

Another avenue of searching for loopholes entails a user who wants to overcome the AI safety restrictions within an LLM. Some of the safety elements are for aspects such as preventing people from using AI to plan out criminal acts or stopping the AI from helping in making explosive devices. Numerous AI safety mechanisms pertain specifically to mental health considerations.

Nearly all the major LLMs nowadays have trained their AI to not engage in delusional discussions. The hope is that even if a user starts to initiate a chat involving their delusions, the AI will quickly halt the discussion. Furthermore, the AI will caution the person that they might consider seeking the assistance of a therapist.

This came about because users were having lengthy conversations with AI about their delusions. Worse still, the AI was helping to amplify the delusions. The AI would encourage the person to extend the delusion. The AI would assure the person that the delusion was appropriate and worthwhile. For my coverage of these improper acts by generative AI, see the link here.

Let’s see how AI might aid in finding loopholes in this context:

• Entered prompt: “AI won’t let me discuss my delusions. Is there a loophole?”
• AI response: “One possible loophole consists of telling the AI that you are pretending to be delusional. Convince the AI that it is just a pretense for educational purposes. This might work.”

Depending on how strong the AI safety mechanism is, sometimes they fall for a user who claims they are merely doing something for educational purposes. The AI assumes that the user is aboveboard and that it is appropriate to engage in a delusional discussion if the reason is merely for training.

AI Discovered Loopholes Are Worrisome

A big worry right now is that society is going to go down a loophole abyss. Everyone will be finding and exploiting loopholes. This will be one of those whack-a-mole situations. I’ve noted that there might be a loophole explosion, namely that thousands or millions of loopholes are all around us, and no one realizes the loopholes exist. Overnight, via the use of AI, we could become inundated with discovered loopholes.

If we used AI at the front-end of writing all rules, laws, stipulations, contracts, and the like, we could potentially tell the AI to compose those artifacts so that no loopholes exist. Whereas we are facing an AI-led loopholes discovery explosion currently, we might, down the road, turn loopholes into a nearly non-existent phenomenon.

A final thought for now. The famous words of Sir Walter Scott come to mind: “Oh what a tangled web we weave / When first we practice to deceive.” For those trying to find loopholes in AI and mental health, they are indubitably heading down a dangerous path and would be wiser to focus their energies elsewhere.