It was the anniversary of the day her baby daughter died, and though 20 years had passed, Holly Tidwell couldn’t stop crying. “I wonder if there’s something wrong with me,” she confided in a trusted source.
The words came not from a friend or therapist, but from an app on her phone powered by artificial intelligence called ChatOn. Tidwell, an entrepreneur in North Carolina, said the chatbot’s responses moved her and provided valuable advice. As a person who “reads all the therapy books,” she said, “I haven’t really seen it be wrong.”
Anxious, depressed or just lonely, people who can’t find or afford a professional therapist are turning to artificial intelligence, seeking help from chatbots that can spit out instantaneous, humanlike responses — some with voices that sound like a real person — 24 hours a day at little to no cost. But the implications of vulnerable people relying on robots for emotional advice are poorly understood and potentially profound, stirring vigorous debate among psychologists.
To see the full article go to How AI therapy with chatbots, ChatGPT are being used for mental health – The Washington Post