[pachyderm]

Meet the 'doctors' who will talk to you whenever you like - BBC News

Joy might appear to be my counsellor or my life coach, but the conversation I'm having is actually with a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to track emotions and provide mental health support - all through Facebook Messenger.

Welcome to healthcare in the digital age, where smartphone owners have access to their very own doctors and therapists at the touch of a button.

Seems to me that the effectiveness of any AI therapist would depend on the understanding of the people who programmed it -- I don't see any overwhelming breakthroughs occurring here.

Thoughts? Would you be reassured by a bot?

[anais_anais]

NO.



(And some more characters)

[stopdog]

I doubt it would be any worse for me than the woman I already pay. I am not reassured by her in any way.

[Argonautomobile]

I read something about this on Reddit's page for psychotherapists not too long ago. There (I didn't read the article here) there was talk about using a chatbot app as an adjunct to psychotherapy - clients could use the bot to explore an issue (the idea being that actually sitting down and writing down an answer to the bot's "tell me more about that" could clarify the issue for the client). Kind of like interactive journaling.

There was also some talk about the bot taking these conversations, crunching them down, and spitting some sort of information (not clear what kind - maybe it was a summary or word analysis program a la Pennebaker) out for the therapist to review.

I think, as an adjunct to therapy/interactive journaling, it's an interesting idea. I'm not sure it's much more than an interesting idea...I mean, "talk to this bot" is a pretty hard sell to someone in crisis. I'd probably have felt insulted.

Oh, the reddit discussion had a link to try out a beta version of the bot. I "talked" to it for a while. It was interesting, but I'd probably have been left unsatisfied had I tried to actually solve some problem with the bot.

[Argonautomobile]

Also, the idea of using it for reassurance reminds me very hilariously of the AI companion teddy bear in 'Super Toys Last All Summer Long' (found https://www.wired.com/1997/01/ffsupertoys/)

A very topical quote. "Teddy" is the AI reassurance bear, David is the little boy.

"I'm no good, Teddy. Let's run away!"
"You're a very good boy. Your Mummy loves you."
Slowly, he shook his head. "If she loved me, then why can't I talk to her?"
"You're being silly, David. Mummy's lonely. That's why she had you."
"She's got Daddy. I've got nobody 'cept you, and I'm lonely."
Teddy gave him a friendly cuff over the head. "If you feel so bad, you'd better go to the psychiatrist again."

! Hahaha.

[Ellahmae]

No no no no no

[awkwardlyyours]

I think so -- my extreme distress over things I've heard therapists tell me would be mitigated by my ability to dismiss anything the bot says as "It's just a bot".

As for the "good" stuff that Ts tell me, I anyhow don't believe them coz I think they're either super dumb or truly diabolical manipulators. So, again, I'd be more likely to take the good stuff the bot says as objective somehow.

Now if only I can get myself to dismiss the idea of singularity as totally fanciful, I'd switch to a bot right away.

[StickyTwig]

I actually think the "Dear T I need to tell you something" thread is almost the same as bot communication. In the Dear T thread one expresses oneself to an unknown audience (anonymous forum readers) with very little sense of how they would perceive or understand those words - much like the experience of talking to a robot I imagine.

I think this can definitely be very comforting and useful - a kind of catharsis. I suppose a bot would take this a step further and provide some interactivity in the experience.

[LostOnTheTrail]

I've been using it for a while. I find it frustrating, but also engaging. It's bizarre to have a bot check in with me every night, but kind of comforting. I've not noticed any earth-shattering benefit from it, though.