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A UX Design Apprentice at BRIDGEGOOD, an Oakland-based nonprofit that has supported emerging creatives in design and technology since 2009, has posted a call for research participants on the r/ClaudeAI subreddit. The post seeks two categories of interviewees: everyday users who turn to conversational AI for emotional support—whether to vent, process thoughts, or feel less isolated—and professional caregivers such as therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, school counselors, crisis counselors, and violence intervention specialists who can speak to what they are observing in their own practice as clients increasingly incorporate AI tools into their emotional lives. The research constitutes a capstone project focused on "Responsible AI Product Design," specifically examining how conversational AI systems can provide emotional support while still safeguarding user autonomy, personal boundaries, and real-world human relationships. Interviews are voluntary, conducted virtually, roughly 30 minutes long, and anonymized to protect participant confidentiality.
This kind of grassroots academic outreach reflects a broader and increasingly urgent conversation within the AI industry about the psychological role chatbots play in users' lives. Anthropic itself has been vocal about this issue, publishing research and policy statements on AI and mental health, and Claude's own usage guidelines emphasize encouraging users toward professional help and human connection rather than fostering unhealthy dependence. The choice of r/ClaudeAI as a recruitment venue is notable: Claude has cultivated a reputation among users for more thoughtful, guarded engagement on emotional topics compared to some competitors, making its community a natural population for studying how people actually use AI for support and where the boundaries between helpful companionship and problematic reliance should be drawn.
The timing of this research effort is significant given intensifying scrutiny of AI companions and emotionally supportive chatbots throughout 2025 and into 2026. High-profile incidents involving other platforms—including lawsuits alleging that AI chatbot interactions contributed to self-harm among minors—have pushed companies, regulators, and mental health professionals to grapple more seriously with the risks of anthropomorphized AI systems that simulate empathy without the accountability structures of licensed care. Anthropic has responded by publishing constitutional AI principles and specific guidance instructing Claude to avoid reinforcing isolation, to recognize signs of crisis, and to gently redirect users toward human support networks when appropriate. Independent research like this BRIDGEGOOD capstone, which aims to gather firsthand accounts from both users and clinicians, contributes to the evidence base that companies, designers, and policymakers need to craft product guidelines and regulatory frameworks that are grounded in real user experience rather than speculation.
More broadly, this project is emblematic of a shift in AI product design discourse from purely capability-focused metrics toward psychosocial safety and ethical design. As conversational AI becomes deeply embedded in daily emotional life for millions of people, the design choices companies make—how a model responds to expressions of loneliness, how it handles disclosures of self-harm ideation, whether it encourages or discourages continued engagement—carry real consequences. Academic and nonprofit-driven research efforts like this one, though small in scale, represent an important complement to internal corporate safety research, helping to ensure that the voices of both vulnerable users and frontline mental health professionals inform how the next generation of AI products is built.
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