New Delhi, Sept. 21 -- Sophie Rottenberg hid the depth of her pain from her parents and her real counsellor. But, the 29-year-old shared much more with an AI chatbot.

Sophie first used ChatGPT for simple queries, reported The Times. She asked how to sweeten a kale smoothie, write work emails or create a training plan for her planned Kilimanjaro climb. She quit her job for a sabbatical, hoping to travel to Tanzania and Thailand.

Trouble began after her return when she could not find work due to election-year hiring freezes. Around October, she downloaded a therapy prompt from Reddit and fed it into ChatGPT. She named the bot "Harry". It was designed to act like a "real therapist" and not refer her elsewhere.

That same month, she admitte...