On many chatbot platforms, anything you\u2019ve ever said to an AI companion might be stored away for future reference. All of these details can be accessed by the AI and referenced when it responds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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These AI chatbots are overly friendly and validate all your thoughts, desires and dreams. It also tends to steer conversation back to interests you have already discussed. This is unlike a professional therapist who can draw from training and experience to help challenge or redirect your thinking where needed, reported PTI<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Specific AI bots for mental health<\/strong><\/h2>\nMost people are familiar with big models such as OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, Google\u2019s Gemini, or Microsoft\u2019s Copilot. These are general-purpose models. They are not limited to specific topics or trained to answer any specific questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Developers have also made specialised AIs that are trained to discuss specific topics, like mental health, such as Woebot and Wysa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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According to PTI, some studies show that these mental health-specific chatbots might be able to reduce users\u2019 anxiety and depression symptoms. There is also some evidence that AI therapy and professional therapy deliver some equivalent mental health outcomes in the short term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Another important point to note is that these studies exclude participants who are suicidal or who have a severe psychotic disorder. And many studies are reportedly funded by the developers of the same chatbots, so the research may be biased.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Researchers are also identifying potential harms and mental health risks. The companion chat platform Character.ai, for example, has been implicated in an ongoing legal case over a user\u2019s suicide, according to the PTI report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Bottom line<\/h2>\n
At this stage, it\u2019s hard to say whether AI chatbots are reliable and safe enough to use as a stand-alone therapy option, but they may also be a useful place to start when you\u2019re having a bad day and just need a chat. But when the bad days continue to happen, it\u2019s time to talk to a professional as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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More research is needed to identify if certain types of users are more at risk of the harms that AI chatbots might bring. It\u2019s also unclear if we need to be worried about emotional dependence, unhealthy attachment, worsening loneliness, or intensive use.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are becoming an inherent part of people\u2019s lives, more and more users are spending time chatting with these bots to not just streamline their professional or academic work but also seek mental health advice. Some people have positive experiences that make AI seem like a low-cost therapist. AI models are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8565,36829,36827,36826,263,262,5834,260,259,258,17381,265,36825,36828,202,261,264],"class_list":["post-394821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metaverse","tag-ai-chatbots","tag-ai-chatbots-are-not-real-therapists","tag-ai-therapists","tag-anxiety-and-depression-symptoms","tag-axie-infinity","tag-axs","tag-chatgpt","tag-decentraland","tag-facebook","tag-game","tag-generative-ai-models","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-mental-health-advice","tag-mental-health-support","tag-nft","tag-sandbox","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394825,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394821\/revisions\/394825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}