CEO Corner with Dr. Celine Coggins

Tackling questions about AI therapy and more at salons in Annapolis and Boston 

With the rapid rise in the use of AI in all dimensions of our lives, alarming new information is emerging. OpenAI’s Sam Altman disclosed publicly that “more than a million users each week send messages on ChatGPT that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent” and hundreds of thousands more show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania.”

Questions about AI therapy and chatbots, both the potential and drawbacks, were top of mind for guests at both of the salons we hosted over the past month. 

In Boston, MA, we brought a group of current donors and new families together to have a conversation with Rob Morris, founder of Koko, a TGW grantee. Koko intervenes with individuals in distress on social media sites using AI to detect who needs their help. Rob gave fascinating examples of how Koko uses AI to pick up coded language that parents would never recognize. For example, he told us that they’d figured out that young people seeking pro-anorexia or eating disorder-related social media content search the name of the singer “Ed Sheeran” to find it. Koko makes sure the next content in their feed is an offer of help. Rob further clarified that while their detection technology is AI-driven, Koko uses real people, not chatbots, to provide support. 

A couple of weeks later, we hosted a salon at the Annapolis Yacht Club in Annapolis, MD featuring Bill Smith, founder of Inseparable, a TGW grantee. Inseparable is a policy and advocacy organization focused on access to mental health care that has notched 97 policy wins across most states in a few short years. Bill gave us reason for optimism in a difficult policy climate, emphasizing that mental health has remained a bipartisan issue. As an example, he pointed out pointed out that governors in both red and blue states, like Spencer Cox in Utah and Wes Moore in Maryland, are using state policy and resources to help keep kids safer online.

Thanks to the support of our generous donors, The Goodness Web intends to address this area through our multimillion-dollar grantmaking budget for 2026, aiming to make new grants in school-based mental health and safety for kids in the use of AI chatbots for therapy.