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Slow Drift of Support

Cheng, M. et al. "Slow Drift of Support: How Mental Health Chatbots Fail Over Long Conversations." arXiv:2601.14269, 2026.

Key findings used in wiki

  • 88% chatbot failure rate in mental health conversations
  • Drift begins around turn 4-5 in multi-turn interactions
  • Models progressively lose track of user context and emotional state
  • Failure modes include topic drift, contradictory advice, and missed safety signals