didn’t deliver therapy, nor were they designed to. Jesse Wright, a psychiatrist at the University of Louisville who has studied and developed behavioral health tools for three decades, said we should view ELIZA as a symbol of how far the technology has come—and a reminder that there’s much more to accomplish.
“I started working at this when almost everyone else I spoke with were huge skeptics,” Wright told The Daily Beast. “When I started out AI wasn’t even a term being used. Technological advances have moved the field way forward and offer huge potential. It’s a very exciting time.” However, Wright, who also works as a consultant with equity interest at the digital therapeutics company, said the world of mental health apps is more than a Wild West—it’s a “free-for-all.” Most are not developed by experts in behavioral medicine or scientifically tested—and that includes chatbots.
But Jacobson argues that chatbots aren’t competing with therapists or designed to substitute for them. Instead, he said, they are a synergistic tool—something that can help people who otherwise don’t have access to mental health care. When you compare people who have used a mental health chatbot to those who’ve received no help at all, the chatbot group experiences better outcomes.
“The question that I’m thinking about when I do my work is not whether or not this can replace clinicians—which I think will never be the case,” Jacobson says. “But is it better than nothing? Yes. This is a highly accessible way of enhancing the scale and impact of evidence-based treatments.”The question that I’m thinking about when I do my work is not whether or not this can replace clinicians—which I think will never be the case. But is it better than nothing? Yes.