A staggering 800 million people use ChatGPT on a weekly basis, according to parent company OpenAI.
And a September 2025 report by the company shows they turn to the chatbot for many reasons — like translation, programming, data analysis, recipes and chit chat.
While many of the bot’s uses are fairly mundane, some experts have noticed people turning to ChatGPT for advice on sensitive issues, like therapy.
That’s not a great idea says therapist, psychologist and researcher Vaile Wright.
“These bots basically tell people exactly what they want to hear,” Wright said on a recent episode of podcast “Speaking of Psychology.”
“So if you are a person that, in that particular moment, is struggling and is typing in potential harmful or unhealthy behaviors and thoughts, these types of chatbots are built to reinforce those harmful thoughts and behaviors.”
In many cases, it’s incorrectly applying the law.
Jackie Combs
Divorce attorney, Blank Rome
Jackie Combs, family and divorce attorney at Blank Rome, has noticed her clients going to the bot for help with sensitive issues as well. Combs represents high-net-worth clients like model Emily Ratajkowski.
“One of the things that I am seeing with a lot of younger generation, millennials and Gen Z particularly,” she says, “is they are turning to ChatGPT for legal advice.”
It’s something Combs advises against.
While she doesn’t know which websites ChatGPT culls it’s information from, when clients send her the bot’s legal analyses, she sees that they’re not always accurate.
ChatGPT does not take into account “the complex nature that is different to everybody’s case,” she says. “And in many cases, it’s incorrectly applying the law.”
With decisions as high stakes as divorce, you don’t want to risk taking advice from a machine that can lead you astray.
ChatGPT “is not a substitute for the years of experience that an attorney can provide,” Combs says.
If you need to get legal advice, “always consult with an attorney,” she says.
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