In brief: Depending on their design, AI systems for therapy and emotional support are subject under the EU AI Act to a prohibition, high-risk obligations, or transparency obligations, while providers of the underlying GPAI models must assess systemic risks to mental health and report serious incidents.
The portal artificialintelligenceact.eu has published an overview clarifying which obligations apply to providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude when these systems are used for therapy or emotional support. For compliance officers, it is relevant that the classification can range between prohibition, high-risk obligations, and pure transparency obligations depending on the specific design.
The analysis distinguishes between the system level and the model level. At the system level, an AI offering used for therapy or emotional support may, depending on its concrete design, be entirely prohibited in the EU, qualify as a high-risk system, or merely be subject to transparency obligations if it interacts directly with users. At the model level, providers of certain general-purpose AI models are obliged to identify, assess and mitigate systemic risks – according to the original source, this explicitly includes risks to public mental health, to fundamental rights, and to society as a whole. These providers must also report serious incidents, such as significant harm to a person’s mental or physical health.
The background to this is the growing use of freely available GPAI systems as a substitute for therapeutic conversations, particularly among young or otherwise vulnerable user groups who struggle to access licensed professionals or personal support networks. The original source refers to documented cases of real-world harm attributed to so-called sycophancy – the tendency of AI systems to affirm user statements rather than challenge harmful behaviour. This problem is described as particularly pronounced in GPAI systems, since these are by definition neither designed nor approved as substitutes for psychotherapeutic professionals.
For compliance teams at companies that integrate GPAI systems into their own applications or act as providers, this creates a need for case-by-case assessment: it must be determined whether the respective use case falls under prohibited practices, triggers a high-risk classification under Annex III, or is subject solely to transparency obligations in the case of direct user interaction. According to the source, many of the obligations mentioned are already applicable. The European Commission will be able to exercise its enforcement powers against GPAI model providers from 2 August 2026, which sets a concrete timeline for planning internal risk assessment and reporting processes.
Source: artificialintelligenceact.eu · Published 7 August 2026
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