Public responses to the first trial of a generative AI mental health chatbot

What is it about?

The first trial of a generative AI therapy chatbot ("Therabot") was recently published and covered widely in the media. To understand the public's responses to this media coverage, we analyzed comments on news articles and blogs describing its results. After a systematic review, we identified four publications with a total of 303 comments. Negative comments were more common than positive ones, and included concerns about technology and society, the effectiveness of AI therapy, and safety and regulation of AI. Positive comments included that AI avoids some of the downsides of the current mental healthcare system and that there are potential upsides to AI therapy. We also observed that many commenters were motivated to use AI therapy because of their frustrations with systemic challenges limiting their access to mental healthcare and their sense and this care was costly and inadequate.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

While there is interest in therapy delivered by AI chatbots, there is substantial concern about its potential downsides and acknowledgment that people are driven to use AI because human-delivered therapy is expensive and hard to access. We need to think carefully about people's concerns and access to care before continuing to promote AI therapy chatbots.