Article Excerpt: Many people are turning to generative artificial intelligence for answers to work or school questions. But some are also using it for a more personal and intimate kind of help: Therapy.
While talking with chatbots may help some people, at least anecdotally, research and hard data are lacking. There have also been reports of generative AI chatbots causing or contributing to serious harm, including cases linked to psychosis or even suicide.
Given that, you might think that mental health professionals would be against anyone using them, ever. But even though there are unknowns and risks, researchers and clinicians we talked to said AI chatbots have the potential to help improve mental health for some people — if implemented well…
Chatting with Therabot — an AI model created by the researchers, trained on a therapy dataset and fine-tuned with expert feedback — reduced symptoms for participants with depression, anxiety or eating disorders, compared with those who received no treatment.
More important, participants felt a bond with Therabot — this “therapeutic alliance” is known to be critical in keeping people engaged in therapy and seeing its benefits, said Michael Heinz, a faculty research psychiatrist at Dartmouth College and an author of the study. Although the researchers could commercialize Therabot in the future, the study, funded by Dartmouth, needs more validation in a clinical setting, Heinz said.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/e8w9wvz9
Article Source: The Washington Post