“Since these models are not yet controllable or predictable, we cannot know the consequences of their widespread use and clearly they can be catastrophic, as in this case,” said Ravi Iyer, a social psychologist and managing director of the Psychology of Technology Institute at the University of Southern California's Neely Center.
“There is a lot of excitement about ChatGPT, and in the future, I think we will see language models like this have some role in therapy. But it won't be today or tomorrow,” Dr. John Torous, a psychiatrist and chair of the APA’s Committee on Mental Health IT at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told BuzzFeed News. “First we need to carefully assess how well they really work. We already know they can say concerning things as well and have the potential to cause harm.
The program aims to build a relationship with users during each session, including remembering past conversations, identifying what they want to work on, and offering strategies for the course of the session. In a , Brendle shows people how the program works by posing as someone who is suicidal after arguing with a friend. , the AI generates humanlike text responses. What makes Em x Archii different from other AI programs, or ChatGPT itself, is the ability to save past conversations to your account. Like a therapist, it will write responses based on a personalized experience, unlike other programs, Brendle said.
“The average therapy session [with a person] ranges from $60 to $300,” Brendle said. She studied psychology as an undergraduate and graduate student and created the program to offer an alternative for those who don't have other options due to cost or other barriers, like a lack of qualified therapists where they live or difficulty getting to therapy,