Generative AI Chatbot Delivers Great Results for Mental Health. Is “Therabot” the Future?

Would you open your heart to a bot? Tell it all your problems?
Look to a piece of code, a computer program, for high-quality
mental healthcare? Some people have said yes and the results are
hard to ignore. Dartmouth University test subjects who sought
help from Therabot, a generative AI chatbot, showed a 51%
reduction in depression symptoms, 31% for anxiety, 19% for eating
disorders. Dr. Nicholas Jacobson, who led the study, says people
really bonded with Therabot, called it Thera for short, and would
check in with it frequently. But can a bot really provide
meaningful advice and therapy if it’s not a human being? Are you
now interested in Therabot or more likely than ever to stay far
away?


This episode mentions ELIZA, an early ancestor of Therabot from
1966. You can take Eliza for a spin here.


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