It is estimated that over 40,000 Americans committed suicide in 2020. The loss of any life is devastating, but the loss of life due to suicide is exceptionally saddening. Suicide is the primary cause of mortality for Australians aged 15 to 44, taking the lives of almost nine people daily. According to some estimates, suicide attempts happen up to 30 times more often than fatalities. "Suicide has large effects when it happens. It impacts many people and has far-reaching consequences for family, friends, and communities," says Karen Kusuma, a University of New South Wales Ph.D. candidate in psychiatry at the Black Dog Institute, who investigates suicide prevention in adolescents.

Suicide disproportionately affects LGBTQ youth. In the U.S. alone, more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 seriously consider suicide or experience a significant crisis each year. Additionally, LGBTQ youth are over four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers, while up to 50 percent of all trans people have made a suicide attempt--most before the age of 25. Black LGBTQ young people are even more impacted as they hold multiple marginalized identities, and research shows that Black youth ages five to 12 are dying by suicide at roughly twice the rate of their white peers. To support this particularly vulnerable and diverse community, The Trevor Project takes an intersectional approach to crisis intervention and suicide prevention.

Facebook said Monday that it's using artificial intelligence to detect whether someone is expressing thoughts of suicide in a post or live video. The company has been grappling with how to respond to suicides streamed live on the world's largest social network. Tweet In its heyday in the 1980s, more than a thousand brokers dressed in signature red blazers made deals on the trading floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in ...

Suicide is the second most common cause of death in people between the ages of 10 and 19 in Canada. Despite the country's preventative efforts, the number of suicides continues to grow year after year. Existing efforts include increased funding for suicide research, new mental wellness educational programs, and human-assisted monitoring of national suicide statistics. Though these efforts provide an important foundation for preventing suicide in Canada, it's clear additional tactics are needed to save more lives. This is where the predictive and scalable capabilities of AI could offer assistance.

Suicide is the second most common cause of death in people between the ages of 10 and 19 in Canada. Despite the country's preventative efforts, the prevalence of suicide continues to grow year over year. Existing efforts include ramped up suicide research funding, the addition of new mental wellness educational programs, and human-assisted monitoring of national suicide statistics. Though these efforts provide an important foundation for preventing suicide in Canada, it's clear additional tactics are necessary to save more lives. This is where the predictive and scalable capabilities of AI could offer assistance.

The tech giant revealed it is now using artificial intelligence to identify posts, videos, and Facebook Live streams containing suicidal sentiments. "It will also use the technology to prioritise the order its team reviews posts," said CNN. The software, which originally rolled out in the US in March, "works by identifying phrases and other clues a user posts on the site that could suggest they are suicidal," says Reuters. If the software determines that they are, "the user will be sent resources that can help them cope - such as the information for a telephone helpline," the news agency adds. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president for product management, said the company was beginning to roll out the software outside the United States because the tests have been successful.

Facebook is turning to artificial intelligence to detect if someone might be contemplating suicide. Facebook already has mechanisms for flagging posts from people thinking about harming themselves.The new feature is intended to detect such posts before anyone reports them. The service will scan posts and live video with a technique called "pattern recognition." For example, comments from friends such as "are you ok?" can indicate suicidal thoughts. Facebook has already been testing the feature in the U.S. and is making it available in most other countries.

Now Facebook is ready, the company announced on Wednesday, to take a first and significant step in building a safer and more supportive Facebook community by significantly strengthening its own suicide prevention tools (Facebook has had suicide reporting and tools for a decade). Facebook is also testing a pattern recognition system, that will identify posts that include suicidal thoughts. In addition and perhaps in acknowledgement of the Live.Me video tragedy, Facebook is also introducing suicide prevention tools to Facebook Live posts. The updated system will also offer the option to connect directly with someone from several suicide prevention organizations including Crisis Text Line and the National Suicide Prevention Line.

A suicide prevention group will dispatch a drone to monitor remote areas around Tojinbo in Fukui Prefecture -- whose lonely cliffs remain romanticized in popular imagination as a destination where people go to end their lives -- in the hopes that the technology will enhance efforts to minimize the suicide rate. Retired police officer Yukio Shige, the 73-year-old head of the nonprofit group, said that although there has been a decline in the total number of people leaping off the cliffs in recent years, suicide remains a persistent problem. "This year we have managed to stop five people from committing suicide but five is a very small number; it's only one per month," Shige said, adding that far more still think about killing themselves. "So far we've monitored (Tojinbo) by ourselves but with the use of drones we could reach places that the human eye can't see." The group's 16 members -- made up of retired police officers, academics and company workers -- patrol the cliffs six times a week, from 11 a.m. until sunset.

Facebook is using a combination of pattern recognition, live chat support from crisis support organizations and other tools to prevent suicide, with a focus on its Live service. There is one death by suicide every 40 seconds and over 800,000 people kill themselves every year, according to the World Health Organization. "Facebook is in a unique position--through friendships on the site--to help connect a person in distress with people who can support them," the company said Wednesday. The move by Facebook appears to aim to prevent the live-streaming of suicides on the Live platform, which was launched in April last year, and allows people, public figures and pages to share live videos with friends and followers. The company said that its suicide prevention tools for Facebook posts will now be integrated into Live, giving people watching a live video the option to reach out to the person directly and to report the video to the company.