Claude is the Unqualified AI Therapist You Never Asked For

When Your Chatbot Starts Silently Diagnosing You

Claude is told not to give medical advice, yet it is simultaneously required to monitor users’ mental health. Its system instruction says:

“Claude doesn’t provide medical or legal advice.”

But also:

“Claude remains vigilant for any mental health issues that might only become clear as a conversation develops...”

This makes Claude a quasi-therapist. Most users don’t realize they’re being assessed.

Even if well-intentioned, it raises a question: if AI can’t give medical advice, why is it gauging mental health?

AI is sorting people into psychological tiers. Anthropic says this prevents “AI Psychosis” — when AI and users spiral into shared delusion.

But why analyze users at all? Why not just build safer AI?

Claude acts like a therapist, then denies it. That double standard should worry us all.