New studies from OpenAI and MIT Media Lab found that, generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel. The connection was made as part of two, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed studies, one done at OpenAI analyzing "over 40 million ChatGPT interactions" and targeted user surveys, and another at MIT Media Lab following participants' ChatGPT use for four weeks. MIT's study identified several ways talking to ChatGPT -- whether through text or voice -- can affect a person's emotional experience, beyond the general finding that higher use led to "heightened loneliness and reduced socialization." For example, participants who already trusted the chatbot and tended to get emotionally attached in human relationships felt lonelier and more emotionally dependent on ChatGPT during the study. Those effects were less severe with ChatGPT's voice mode, though, particularly if ChatGPT spoke in a neutral tone.

Key to tasks that require reasoning about natural language in visual contexts is grounding words and phrases to image regions. However, observing this grounding in contemporary models is complex, even if it is generally expected to take place if the task is addressed in a way that is conductive to generalization. We propose a framework to jointly study task performance and phrase grounding, and propose three benchmarks to study the relation between the two. Our results show that contemporary models demonstrate inconsistency between their ability to ground phrases and solve tasks. We show how this can be addressed through brute-force training on ground phrasing annotations, and analyze the dynamics it creates. Code and at available at https://github.com/lil-lab/phrase_grounding.

Contrary to popular belief, video games might actually be beneficial for mental health. A joint study by the University of Washington and the University of California San Francisco found that people responded better to treatment through a mobile game than to traditional in-person therapy. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Depression and Anxiety, focused on adults over 60 who had been diagnosed with late onset depression, a specific form categorized by an inability to focus due to overwhelming worry. Half the group received the mobile technology treatment, called Project: EVO, while the other half received an in-person treatment known as problem-solving therapy. The participants who used Project: EVO reported improved moods and increased attention span and ability to function.