California wants to ban AI therapists as thousands turn to chatbots for mental healthcare
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People will go to a chatbot for therapy only because a combination of They don't have time, they don't have enough money, they can't safely go to therapy, they don't have the means to (safely) travel to therapy, organising therapy in the first place is too big of a hurdle in the, therapy is often stigmatised & therefore getting therapy from a…
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Honest question, you really think AI could manage that? Considering the fact that it has done the opposite before and encouraged a kid to kill himself? Are we talking about the same AI chatbots that can't even argue with a person without trying to also agree with them at the same time? The AI chatbots that hallucinate misinformation? Those AI…
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But are they making it easier to get to a human therapist? In Georgia, the waiting list is usually months long to get a therapist, and can be longer depending on your health insurance provider. Getting rid of AI therapist could be a good step, but it's not solving the root of the problem as to why people are turning to a robot in the first place.
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Never used Grok, the name alone makes me avoid it…lol. Don’t worry, AI is not my primary source, I mainly use it to quickly find information that a normal search would take hours to find. As far as therapy, I guess I got lucky 40 years ago when AI did not exist (or did it?). Amazing how the human race survived without it.
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I have a friend, studying to be a therapist because she thinks she'll make good money, who actually hates therapy but loves her AI therapist. The AI will tell her that the man she's been obsessed with for 8+ years who is married with a young child is actually in love with her too, he just can't express it. It's awful.
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I think this is the best pro-take I've seen. Ask anyone who's actually called 988, and while it's better than nothing, it's kinda useless. It's underfunded as hell, so usually you just get a volunteer with a few hours of training that can google the nearest food shelf for you.
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Yep. I have a close friend who has given up on therapy because she was called out by each one of her therapists. One of them had the ‘audacity’ to suggest that she can be a little mean and chooses to confront people on things that she could have let go just as easily.
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Tell that to therapists who basically make no money. It's extremely rare for a therapist to make over 60k. So ... No. Bad idea. Make insurance better so therapists get paid well and we don't eat the cost. Or better yet, Medicare for all.
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It basically organizes google into something more digestible, that saves a ton of time. Idk how I feel about calling it therapy... I definitely would never call it professional therapy, but it can be therapeutic like a self help book.
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Ai therapy is already the "illusion of other options." AI chatbots doing therapy is akin to googling mental health advice, skimming it, then telling people that you go to therapy. This is such a dogshit take.