Quite a number of studies suggest that chatbots are an effective tool for mental health support. Doesn’t need to be either or, but one could imagine scenarios where it may be more effective than a human mental health professional, e.g., 24/7 availability.
wswope|2 years ago
I do think there’s some nuance to that research though - just the act of typing out thoughts alone to a neutral party seems like it would be helpful, regardless of what’s said in response.
However, speaking personally - if I were suicidal, called an emergency line, and got connected to a computer instead of a person: that would feel like a brushoff and make things much, much worse.
My belief is that chatbots can be great for general mental health maintenance but are likely a massive liability for an acutely distressed population in the general case. I have zero faith in the US govt.’s implementation to respect that subtlety.