FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedin Cecilia Hegamin-Younger and Melanie Chenette of the American University in the Caribbean examine an urgent, emerging risk to seafarers: AI chatbots. Already facing high mental health vulnerability – over 35% reporting depressive symptoms and 55% anxiety post-pandemic – seafarers’ isolation increases the danger of harmful reliance on AI companions. The article outlines five evidence-based strategies to protect emotional safety and explores three linked threats. The seafarer community is often overlooked and critical. The United Nations (UN) has described this community as immeasurably important, supplying the globe with 90% of its trade and commodities (Guterres, 2022). RelatedNews Pilbara Ports: Best practices for gangway related activities Liberia issues advisory highlighting hazards of fumigation using phosphide var jnews_module_21364550_0_6a04e338bfa8f = {"header_icon":"","first_title":"Related","second_title":"News","url":"","header_type":"heading_8","header_background":"","header_secondary_background":"","header_text_color":"","header_line_color":"","header_accent_color":"","header_filter_category":"","header_filter_author":"","header_filter_tag":"","header_filter_cpt_post_tag":"","header_filter_cpt_tribe_events_cat":"","header_filter_cpt_web_story_category":"","header_filter_cpt_web_story_tag":"","header_filter_text":"All","sticky_post":false,"sticky_post_filter":false,"post_type":"post","content_type":"all","sponsor":false,"number_post":"2","post_offset":0,"unique_content":"unique1","include_post":"","included_only":false,"exclude_post":"21364550","include_category":"","exclude_category":"","include_author":"","include_tag":"2707,458,2468","exclude_tag":"","exclude_visited_post":false,"post_tag":"","tribe_events_cat":"","web_story_category":"","web_story_tag":"","sort_by":"latest","show_date":"","date_format":"default","date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","pagination_mode":"disable","pagination_nextprev_showtext":"","pagination_number_p