I pushed eight free AI chatbots to their limits to find the best AI chatbots of 2026. To explore our top picks, check out ZDNET's chatbot-by-chatbot guide.

People with diagnosed mental conditions wound up with worse delusions, increased mania, suicidal thoughts and aggravated eating disorders after relying on an AI chatbot for help, researchers found.

Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot was expertly tricked into stealing millions of pieces of user data, from taxpayer records to ...

Just over half of U.S. teens say they've used chatbots for help with schoolwork, and 12% say they’ve gotten emotional support from these tools. Teens tend to view AI's future impact on their lives ...

According to futurist Tracey Follows, "AI is meeting emotional needs that feel unmet in everyday life. A desire for safety, for predictability and stability. There is a wish to escape the judgment of ...

An AI powerful enough to analyze DNA, file taxes, and grow tomato plants is being redesigned for everyday work, pointing ...

According to a Pew Research Center survey of teens last fall, more than half of them were using AI to complete assignments, though only one in 10 said they were doing "all or most" of their work that ...

In A Nutshell Researchers searching over 10.7 million psychiatric patient records in Denmark found 38 cases where AI chatbot use appeared compatible with potential mental health harm, spanning ...

A new Pew Research Center survey looks at how teens use and view AI, from its impact in school to its impact in their ...

“This is not a red-versus-blue issue." ...

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude chose nuclear war in 95% of crisis simulations, raising concerns about military AI ...