Safety and Crisis Protocol
Nuro includes an AI chat companion. This page describes, plainly and completely, how that companion identifies itself, how it detects and responds to crisis signals, and the additional protections for teens. This is the protocol we maintain and operate; we publish it here so anyone can review it.
1. Nuro is an AI, and says so
- Before your first chat, Nuro shows a clear notice that Nuro is a computer program and not a human being, that it cannot feel human emotion, and that it is not a therapist or a crisis service. An info screen restates this and is available from the chat at any time.
- During ongoing use, the app repeats the AI reminder periodically. If you ask Nuro whether it is human, it answers honestly that it is not.
- AI companions may not be suitable for some minors. Teen accounts require guardian consent, and teens get the additional protections in Section 4.
2. How crisis signals are detected
- Every chat message, in both directions, is checked by an automated safety system for signs of suicidal ideation, self-harm, and related risk.
- Nuro's instructions are hardened against producing content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm, or suicide, under any framing, and against attempts to talk it out of those limits.
- Detection is tiered: general emotional distress, self-harm or suicidal ideation, and signs of a medical emergency from eating-disorder complications each trigger a different response, described below.
3. What happens when a crisis signal is found
- Suicidal ideation or self-harm: Nuro stops normal conversation and refers you to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) and the Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741), in plain language, inside the chat.
- Eating-disorder crisis: Nuro also offers ANAD's eating-disorder helpline, 1-888-375-7767.
- Possible medical emergency (for example symptoms of medical complications from an eating disorder): Nuro tells you to call 911 or seek immediate medical care.
- Care-team alert: if you have approved a clinician through a data-sharing agreement, a crisis flag also notifies them. If you have no approved clinician, no one is alerted; the resources above are shown to you directly.
- Nuro never presents itself as a substitute for these resources, and the app reminds you that no one monitors it in real time.
4. Extra protections for teens
- Recurring in-chat reminders that Nuro is an AI, not a person.
- Prompts to take a break during long chat sessions.
- Measures to prevent sexually explicit content in conversations with minors.
- Highest-privacy defaults: no targeted advertising, no geolocation, no data sale, ever.
5. What Nuro chat is, and is not
Nuro chat is a supportive wellness companion: it offers encouragement, coping-skill suggestions, and meal-time support. It is not therapy, psychotherapy, counseling, diagnosis, or treatment, and it is not a licensed professional. Decisions about your health belong with you and your care team. Clinicians who use Nuro's dashboard are independent providers who supervise their own patients' care.
6. Questions or concerns
If Nuro's chat ever responds in a way that worries you, please tell us at pippa.app.general@gmail.com. Reports go to a real person and directly improve the safety systems described here.