About this Event
The Observer on the social impact of AI
Wednesday 13 May 2026
6-7pm
RSA House and online via YouTube
In the three short years since the release of ChatGPT, AI chatbots have reshaped how millions of people live. But while the technology’s economic and political consequences are widely debated, its social and psychological impacts are only just beginning to come into focus.
Mental health is emerging as one of the most pressing - and troubling - frontiers. According to OpenAI’s own data from October 2025, as many as 560,000 users a week were showing “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania” in their interactions with its systems. Clinicians, researchers, and journalists are now documenting cases in which vulnerable users form intense, and sometimes harmful, relationships with AI tools.
Join The Observer’s Technology Reporter Patricia Clarke, Dr Thomas Pollak, neuropsychiatrist at King’s College London, and Katie Freeman-Tayler Head of Research & Policy at Internet Matters for a conversation on how AI is rewiring our emotional lives. What risks and responsibilities come with technologies that can mimic empathy? What obligations do tech firms, regulators and governments face? And what lessons can be drawn from the slow reckoning with social media’s toll on mental health - especially among children and young people?
Speakers:
- Patricia Clarke, Technology Reporter at The Observer
- Dr Thomas Pollak, Neuropsychiatrist at King’s College London
- Katie Freeman-Tayler, Head of Research and Policy at Internet Matters
Chair:
- James Harding, Editor-in-Chief of The Observer
Image credit: Kathryn Conrad & Digit
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), 8 John Adam Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
