Bridging the Disclosure Gap: AI’s Potential Role in Suicide Prevention

Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) tools-specifically, general-purpose large language models-are increasingly used by individuals to disclose suicidal thoughts. Although these platforms can assess suicide risk with growing accuracy, they are not reliably equipped to respond effectively and often even provide harmful or unsafe guidance. Current AI systems fail to motivate disclosure of suicide risk to another person, a necessary step for safety and support. The authors draw attention to this gap and argue for the need to integrate disclosure-focused interventions into AI tools, offering an empirically grounded direction for developers and policymakers to advance suicide prevention in the context of this rapidly evolving technology.