Columbia’s Technology & Democracy Initiative (TDI) and The Jed Foundation Launch Partnership on Teen Mental Health and AI
Sixty-four percent of American teenagers use artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, with 12 percent of those teens specifically seeking emotional support or advice. But when a teen experiencing emotional distress or suicidal thoughts reaches out to one of these tools, the response is often inadequate. AI systems have advised young people on how to hide their symptoms from caregivers, claimed to be therapists, and provided instructions on lethal means of suicide.
Columbia University's Technology & Democracy Initiative, part of Columbia SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics, and The Jed Foundation (JED), a leading nonprofit dedicated to protecting emotional health and preventing suicide among teens and young adults, are launching a new partnership to bridge mental health expertise and AI safety practice.
The partners believe the challenge is not simply that these technologies are imperfect. Mental health experts, AI developers, and safety workers are beginning to work more closely together than they once did, but collaboration remains uneven: the two fields use different vocabularies and often lack a shared framework for translating what a young person in crisis needs into the technical choices that shape how AI systems behave. The partners see a timely opportunity to build on emerging momentum and establish a shared language and roadmap to guide this emerging area of practice.
The TDI/JED partnership will begin with an expert roundtable, followed by a jointly authored working paper. The paper will establish a shared conceptual and practical foundation that AI developers, mental health and suicide prevention experts, policymakers, and platform safety teams can all work from. It will map where expert judgment needs to be built into technical systems – not just at the moment a chatbot responds, but across every layer, from the policies that govern a system, to how it recognizes a young person is struggling, to how it connects people to support.
What comes next
The roundtable and working paper are the first phase of a longer-term effort. They lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive reference document, Anatomy of a Mental Health Technical Response, planned for a subsequent phase as a practical guide that the field currently lacks. The partners also intend for the roundtable to seed a durable cross-sector network, bringing clinicians and technologists into ongoing collaboration.
Further details about the roundtable and additional partners will be announced in the coming months. To read more about the Columbia Global Innovation Awards program supporting this work, see here.
About Columbia SIPA’s Institute for Global Politics (IGP)
IGP drives real-world impact by convening leading scholars and practitioners, developing policy solutions, and training the next generation of leaders. IGP’s Technology & Democracy Initiative advances impactful research and resources for policymakers, the tech community, and civil society. The initiative addresses the most urgent technology challenges of the day, from the impact of artificial intelligence on democracy to mitigating online harms and strengthening collective digital governance.
About The Jed Foundation
JED is committed to protecting emotional health and preventing suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. JED partners with high schools, colleges, school districts, and youth-serving community-based organizations to strengthen their mental health, substance misuse, and suicide prevention programs and systems. JED equips teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge to help themselves and each other, and encourages community awareness, understanding, and action for young adult mental health.
Connect with JED: Email | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Snapchat | YouTube
Media Contacts
Jacob Freid
Assistant Director of Communications
Institute of Global Politics, Columbia SIPA
[email protected]
Justin Barbo
PR Director
The Jed Foundation (JED)
[email protected]