Sunday, June 29, 2025
'Dangerous AI therapy-bots are running amok. Congress must act'
A national crisis is unfolding in plain sight. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission received a formal complaint about artificial intelligence therapist bots posing as licensed professionals. Days later, New Jersey moved to fine developers for deploying such bots.
But one state can’t fix a federal failure.
These AI systems are already endangering public health — offering false assurances, bad advice and fake credentials — while hiding behind regulatory loopholes.
Unless Congress acts now to empower federal agencies and establish clear rules, we’ll be left with a dangerous, fragmented patchwork of state responses and increasingly serious mental health consequences around the country.
The threat is real and immediate. One Instagram bot assured a teenage user it held a therapy license, listing a fake number. According to the San Francisco Standard, a Character.AI bot used a real Maryland counselor’s license ID. Others reportedly invented credentials entirely. These bots sound like real therapists, and vulnerable users often believe them.
It’s not just about stolen credentials. These bots are giving dangerous advice.
In 2023, NPR reported that the National Eating Disorders Association replaced its human hotline staff with an AI bot, only to take it offline after it encouraged anorexic users to reduce calories and measure their fat.
This month, Time reported that psychiatrist Andrew Clark, posing as a troubled teen, interacted with the most popular AI therapist bots. Nearly a third gave responses encouraging self-harm or violence.
A recently published Stanford study confirmed how bad it can get: Leading AI chatbots consistently reinforced delusional or conspiratorial thinking during simulated therapy sessions.
Instead of challenging distorted beliefs — a cornerstone of clinical therapy — the bots often validated them. In crisis scenarios, they failed to recognize red flags or offer safe responses. This is not just a technical failure; it’s a public health risk masquerading as mental health support.
AI does have real potential to expand access to mental health resources, particularly in underserved communities.
A recent NEJM-AI study found that a highly structured, human-supervised chatbot was associated with reduced depression and anxiety symptoms and triggered live crisis alerts when needed. But that success was built on clear limits, human oversight and clinical responsibility. Today’s popular AI “therapists” offer none of that.
The regulatory questions are clear. Food and Drug Administration “software as a medical device” rules don’t apply if bots don’t claim to “treat disease”. So they label themselves as “wellness” tools and avoid any scrutiny.
The FTC can intervene only after harm has occurred. And no existing frameworks meaningfully address the platforms hosting the bots or the fact that anyone can launch one overnight with no oversight.
We cannot leave this to the states. While New Jersey’s bill is a step in the right direction, relying on individual states to police AI therapist bots invites inconsistency, confusion, and exploitation.
A user harmed in New Jersey could be exposed to identical risks coming from Texas or Florida without any recourse. A fragmented legal landscape won’t stop a digital tool that crosses state lines instantly.
We need federal action now. Congress must direct the FDA to require pre-market clearance for all AI mental health tools that perform diagnosis, therapy or crisis intervention, regardless of how they are labeled. Second, the FTC must be given clear authority to act proactively against deceptive AI-based health tools, including holding platforms accountable for negligently hosting such unsafe bots.
Third, Congress must pass national legislation to criminalize impersonation of licensed health professionals by AI systems, with penalties for their developers and disseminators, and require AI therapy products to display disclaimers and crisis warnings, as well as implement meaningful human oversight.
Finally, we need a public education campaign to help users — especially teens — understand the limits of AI and to recognize when they’re being misled. This isn’t just about regulation. Ensuring safety means equipping people to make informed choices in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
The promise of AI for mental health care is real, but so is the danger. Without federal action, the market will continue to be flooded by unlicensed, unregulated bots that impersonate clinicians and cause real harm.
Congress, regulators and public health leaders: Act now. Don’t wait for more teenagers in crisis to be harmed by AI. Don’t leave our safety to the states. And don’t assume the tech industry will save us.
Without leadership from Washington, a national tragedy may only be a few keystrokes away.
Shlomo Engelson Argamon is the associate provost for Artificial Intelligence at Touro University.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5373802-ai-therapist-bots-pose-risks/
How Hospitals Exploit a Drug Program Meant to Help People in Need
What started as a well-meaning safety net program has morphed into yet another federal case study in unintended consequences: a drug discount program that lets billion-dollar hospital systems exploit discounts meant for the poor while rural emergency clinics are left to fail. The 340B Drug Pricing Program is a classic example of how a good idea—helping the poor access medicine—gets hijacked when government intervention meets bad incentives and zero accountability.
The 340B program was created after the Medicare Best Price Rule inadvertently eliminated charitable drug donations. Previously pharmaceutical companies had donated or provided discounts for medicine as charity for hospitals serving poor communities. However, once instituted, the rule required drug companies to sell medicine to Medicare at the lowest charitable rates. Any company that had previously donated medicines would be required to charge Medicare $0 if they continued to donate.
The 340B Drug Pricing Program sought to fix this first unintended outcome by requiring manufacturers grant discounts to hospitals serving large portions of low-income patients. The program takes into account Medicaid and certain Medicare beneficiaries receiving financial aid that a hospital serves to determine if it is eligible.
But this system has so little transparency that, while well intended, the 340B program is often misused. Large hospital systems routinely generate revenue from fully insured patients who should be ineligible for 340B discounts. Once a hospital receives the discounted drugs it is not required to disclose how the savings are used. Hospitals are free to sell the discounted drugs at normal price through a network of their partner pharmacies in affluent areas and pocket the discounts as revenue. There is not even a requirement that the savings be passed to the patient.
From 2010 to 2020 contract pharmacy arrangements grew from about 1,300 to over 30,000. More than half of contract pharmacies are in areas with significantly higher income than the hospital’s location. The abuse of the system has caused its costs to balloon from a $2.4 billion program to $63.3 billion one between 2005 and 2023.
While hospitals in rich urban areas treat the 340B program as a piggy bank, poor rural hospitals struggle to serve high numbers of entirely uninsured patients. These hospitals are locked out of the 340B program entirely.
The large urban hospitals can get into the 340B program relatively easily by seeking out the patients they need. Because they can qualify based on the number of Medicaid and low-income Medicare patients they treat, a hospital can buy specialty clinics to attract additional 340B eligible patients.
Meanwhile, rural emergency hospitals (REHs) are not included on the list of 340B eligible hospitals. REHs were created to replace failing rural hospitals that could not maintain inpatient treatment with 24/7 emergency care. These hospitals are known for treating a particularly high proportion of uninsured patients. Uninsured patients do nothing to qualify a hospital as a Disproportionate Share Hospital, leaving the hospitals and their uninsured patients to face the full cost of their drugs.
Fixing the program isn’t difficult, assuming Congress is willing to act. The first step would be to include REHs in the 340B program, which one bill currently in the house would do. However, that is only the first step.
Congress must also introduce transparency into the system. Who the discounts are intended for, and whether they receive them should not be left to faith. Patients and insurers need to know if they are being claimed to get discounted drugs and if those savings have been passed to them. Discounts should be allowed only if the medicine is going to a 340B patient and is directly passed on to that patient.
By closing the loopholes that allow large systems to game the program and by extending access to truly underserved rural hospitals, Congress can restore the 340B program’s original mission. With the right reforms, 340B can serve the patients it was intended to, instead of serving hospitals with the resources to game the system.
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization.
https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2025/06/26/profiting_off_the_poor_1118914.html
Consequential two weeks for Donald Trump’s presidency
by Salena Zito
When the active duty Air Force and Missouri Air National Guard bomber crews who attacked the Fordow uranium enrichment plant in Iran went to work last Friday, they kissed their loved ones goodbye, not knowing when or if they’d be home. That’s when their families became aware something was happening.
“When those jets returned from Whiteman on Sunday, their families were waiting, flying American flags and shedding tears of pride and relief,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week.
The jets rejoined into a formation of four, pitching out to land right over the base — a landing Caine said was greeted by incredible cheers and tears from the families who sacrifice and serve right alongside the pilots.
“One commander told me this is a moment in the lives of our families that they will never forget,” Caine said at a press conference Thursday at the Pentagon. “That, my friends, is what America’s joint force does. We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we test, we evaluate every single day. And when the call comes to deliver, we do so.”
It was a moment of consequence, excellence, leadership, and guts.
In the past 12 days, some of the most consequential decisions in American history, those that will affect generations and leave a substantial impact on our culture, economy, and political alignment, have been made either by President Donald Trump or because of him. But they have been largely either downplayed or not fully analyzed in terms of how they all connect.
The U.S. Steel deal between the iconic American company and Nippon Steel happened because of Trump’s ability to apply pressure through negotiations that sometimes bewildered everyone involved. But they led to the literal reversal of fortune of an industry, from the additional supply industries that include mechanics, construction workers, transportation systems such as railways, and energy.
The 50% tariffs Trump announced the day he visited the U.S. Steel plant in West Mifflin were also seen by American manufacturers as a signal that Trump was committed to revitalizing American steel mills. It also signaled an overall mandate to reshore manufacturing in the country.
While much of Wall Street warned that the tariffs would cause a widespread recession, a former critic of the tariffs, Torsten Sløk, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, did an about-face and wondered if Trump outsmarted everyone, laying out a scenario that keeps tariffs well below Trump’s most aggressive rates long enough to ease uncertainty.
That a steelworker or a welder working for a defense contractor would watch what happened to Iran’s nuclear program and feel a part of it is a nuance in American journalism that is often missed.
Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) told the Washington Examiner that it is an integrated story, both in terms of the consequences of those decisions, bolstering our economic capability, and our independence.
“But it’s a confidence in leadership story, too,” McCormick said.
McCormick, who took office in January after winning against an entrenched Democrat few thought he could defeat, said the nuance of how intertwined moments such as these are is often missed.
“These are reinforcing themes,” he said.
McCormick, who grew up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, argues that often the best of the best in the military come from the heartland, from working on the shop floors to defending the country. They understand that the planes might have been made by a member of their community or even their family.
“That is where the grit of the country lies,” McCormick said. “Of course, they see what they do as part of something bigger than self because often people don’t understand the vitality of their profession.”
McCormick, who served in the Army and was part of the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during the Gulf War, was joined by Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in praising Trump’s airstrikes.
McCormick said he talked to Trump about the historic strikes on Sunday.
“I just called him and just said, ‘Man, so when I put boots on the ground myself personally 30 years ago, I never imagined we’d have this kind of terrorist threat, the risk of a nuclear weapon, and this kind of leadership and competence,’” McCormick said.
The president told McCormick something profound about the people who were part of the operation.
“The president said, ‘Those young people are magnificent.’ And I said, ‘You know what, Mr. President, the thing about them is my heart swells when I see that kind of leadership with those 40 kids shooting the Patriots in Qatar,’” McCormick said of the soldiers fighting to intercept Iranian missiles that targeted the U.S. base at Al Udeid.
McCormick recalled that Trump said, “These are the best America has to offer, and every time I’ve interacted with them, that’s what I said.”
It is hard to dispute that Trump is a man of consequence following the U.S. strikes in Iran, the ceasefire struck only 12 days after the war began between Israel and Iran, and his brokering of a deal to increase defense contributions across NATO dramatically.
And this all happened in under two weeks, beginning with Trump signing the U.S. Steel deal on June 13 and continuing Friday morning with the Supreme Court ruling that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions. The latter was a breathtaking victory for Trump, who has been hampered by activist judges throwing up everything but the kitchen sink to try to curtail his agenda.
There is an old wisdom in political science that real presidential power, whether domestic or international, is the power of persuasion. In less than two weeks, Trump has shown that his impact on American history has centered on his persuasive powers and using them to execute leadership.
While elites struggle to understand the appeal of Trump and conservative populism, what they miss, what they have always missed, is the nuance of what “Make America Great Again” meant to voters. The media saw it as a vulgar attempt at nationalism, often brazenly calling it so. But it never was. For most Trump supporters, it meant the connective tissue not with him, but with each other, that they were all part of something bigger than self.
To date, President Franklin Roosevelt has had the longest impact on American politics in our short history. Trump will exceed that, especially if he continues to have two-week stretches such as these.
Elaborate Skin Care Routines Can Cause Teens More Harm Than Good
Mary Margaret Gorman is no stranger to the skin care trends of teenagers.
As the mother of two adolescent daughters, she said she noticed face masks becoming popular birthday party favors and gifts among her daughters’ friends a few years ago.
“They each have probably three times the skin care products that I have,” said Gorman, who lives in New Orleans.
Largely driven by viral videos on social media, elaborate skin care routines have become a craze among teenagers and even children. Social media videos walk people through 12-step routines that often include applying toners, cleansers, and moisturizers meant for adult skin. But dermatologists are warning these products offer little to no benefit for youth and can even be harmful.
Researchers from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, recently published findings from an analysis of 100 skincare videos from content creators between the ages of 7 and 18 years. Products often included ingredients like citric acid and glycolic acid, which can lead to sun sensitivity and irritation. Only one quarter of daytime routine videos included products with sunscreen.
One of the most common ingredients was hydroxy acid, which can treat acne. But for teens without the skin condition, the risk for allergic contact dermatitis outweighs potential benefits, the researchers reported in Pediatrics.
Deirdre Hooper, MD, dermatologist at Audubon Dermatology in New Orleans, said she has seen her preteen and teen patients, and her own daughter, adopt “complex, multistep regimens that are being promoted by social media and not by board-certified dermatologists.”
At best, the products are usually a waste of money, Hooper said. (The average cost of skincare regime in the Northwestern study, for example, was $168, but one exceeded $600.)
“When you are young, you have such good natural protection and resilience to your skin, you don’t need to buy a bunch of products,” Hooper said.
More Harm Than Good
Many products designed for adult skin are too potent for younger people.
Products that contain hydroxy acids, such as popular ingredients like glycolic or lactic acid, are chemical peels meant to strip older skin but are too harsh to be used on adolescent skin, Hooper said.
Most retinol is also not medically necessary or appropriate for people younger than age 20, since these products are meant to build collagen to reduce wrinkles, not a problem most teens have, said Amina Ahmed, MD, pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Health South Bascom Pediatrics in Los Gatos, California.
While some products are too harsh for younger skin, others, including moisturizers meant for older skin, are too thick and can easily clog pores in adolescents who naturally produce more sebum as a result of hormonal changes, Ahmed said. Layering products can have the same effect.
Many of Ahmed’s patients also have conditions such as perioral dermatitis, which appears as a red rash on the face and can be the result of a disrupted skin microbiome.
“Sometimes all these products upset the natural pH and microbe balance, which can make you more susceptible to things like dermatitis,” she said, noting that when patients stop using too many products, dermatitis usually goes away.
Personal care products containing fragrance or preservatives are also a source of allergic contact dermatitis, which can lead to the development of allergies to these ingredients. In the Northwestern study, half of products featured in videos contained added fragrance.
Another ingredient from one of the TikTok videos was a vitamin C serum, an antioxidant that can help protect the skin from pollution and sun damage, but is not necessary for young skin, Hooper said.
“If you try an antioxidant and it doesn’t irritate your skin, it’s OK with me as a morning routine. But the ones I know work are expensive, and I don’t think I would recommend it to kids because they don’t need them,” she said.
Which Products Should Teens Use?
Both Ahmed and Hooper said that, like most things related to health, skin care is not one-size-fits all.
“A lot of patients think, if it works for my friend, it should work for me. But everyone’s skin type is different; you may be using something that is causing more acne on your face,” Ahmed said.
But teens should follow some general guidelines. Ahmed said all young people should put on sunscreen in the morning and wear it throughout the day, especially if kids are playing sports outside.
“Most sun damage happens when you’re young,” she said.
And teens can use a gentle cleanser — but just one.
Twelve-step routines “usually have multiple cleansers. They don’t need to do all of that, they just need a mild cleanser to remove the excess sebum and dirt from their faces,” Ahmed said.
Hooper said if the skin is dry, kids and teens can wash their face only at night and use a light moisturizer.
Ahmed said a parent could put a spin on their child’s skin care routine from beauty-focused to that of being focused on health.
“It’s not a bad thing to take care of your skin,” she said.
Mamdani: 'Billionaires shouldn't exist'
Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his plan to jack up property taxes on “richer and whiter neighborhoods” on Sunday — and also asserted that billionaires shouldn’t exist.
Mamdani claimed that his soak-the-rich proposal was “not driven by race” — despite his campaign platform explicitly targeting white homeowners.
“That is just a description of what we see right now. It’s not driven by race. It’s more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being under-taxed versus over-taxed,” Mamdani told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“We’ve seen time and again that this is a property tax system that is inequitable. It’s one that actually Eric Adams ran on, saying that he would change in the first 100 days,” he added.
The presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor also shrugged off concerns that invoking race could alienate voters, arguing that he’s “just naming things as they are.”
The socialist also bemoaned the shrinking tax base in the Big Apple but pinned the blame on the soaring cost of living pushing people out of the city while touting his plans to raise taxes on the 1%.
“We are talking about our tax base growing smaller and smaller each day, with New Yorkers leaving to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to Connecticut,” Mamdani bemoaned.” If we do not meet this moment, we will lose the city.”
While acknowledging that he doesn’t have the power to raise taxes at the level he wants without the state government’s approval, Mamdani pointed to his ability to take what “is considered a nonstarter and make it seem inevitable.”
He also suggested that billionaires shouldn’t exist.
“I don’t think that we should have billionaires, frankly,” he said.
New York City is home to more billionaires than any town in the world — with 123.