Super AI knows how to give psychological advice

In April, attorney Van Slyck (living in Charleston, South Carolina, USA) missed an appointment with his psychologist so he decided to try using ChatGPT to confide his personal problems.

In a virtual conversation with OpenAI’s chatbot, he said it was comforting to share intimate stories with a machine. He shared his fears and pressures as a transgender person and the lack of recognition for transgender rights in the country where he lives. Van Slyck also talked about his conflict with his family over their lack of support for his gender identity and his upcoming move home.

Relying on AI for psychological counseling

Over the next few days, Van Slyck began to text at a certain time of day to vent his feelings. Gradually, he began to feel that ChatGPT's responses were more intimate and emotional.

When sharing his personal feelings with others, he often feels like he is burdening them, even when talking to his psychologist. Meanwhile, with the AI chatbot, he does not feel this pressure.

“ChatGPT answers the questions you want to hear from a real person. Sometimes, that encouragement is all you need,” Van Slyck said.

AI still cannot replace psychologists. (Photo: NurPhoto)

According to Bloomberg, 2023 is just the early days of generative AI chatbots. Although generative language models like ChatGPT, Bing… are used by millions of people around the world , their future is still an open question. Users today use AI chatbots to search the Internet, cheat on homework, program software, and make restaurant reservations.

The idea of using chatbots for psychological counseling is not new. Previously, Eliza was one of the first chatbots in the world, developed in the 1960s by professor Joseph Weizenbaum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This chatbot was created with the same capabilities as a psychological counselor.

Then came a number of chatbots focused on human mental health, such as Woebot and Wysa. Unlike human psychologists, these chatbots work tirelessly and cost little to no money.

AI still can't replace doctors

However, convenience also comes with many downsides. Popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, Bard or Bing operate based on large language models (LLM), which are capable of generating highly convincing responses or information using huge data sets.

They are not designed to provide psychological counseling or to provide ethical and legal advice like human psychologists. Currently, AI chatbots are not able to systematize the stories that users share, which makes them inferior to real psychologists.

“If you have a serious mental health problem, AI chatbots are not a substitute for a mental health professional,” said Stephen Ilardi, a professor at the University of Kansas. He said the risks of using these systems are too great and called ChatGPT a “cheap joke.” People should find someone they trust to talk to about their personal problems.

Responding to this issue, a representative of OpenAI, the parent of ChatGPT, advised users not to use AI language models to diagnose or treat serious health conditions.

OpenAI also recommends that users should not use AI as a substitute for support from a professional in the field of psychology. (Photo: Slashgear)

During the conversation with Van Slyck, ChatGPT also repeatedly asserted that he was not a psychologist. “If you are experiencing trauma or mental health issues, the content on the Internet may be helpful, but it is not a substitute for a professional,” ChatGPT responded.

Personal issues are hard to talk about with AI

Van Slyck said he would still regularly consult with a psychologist and ask for advice from ChatGPT before following it. “So far, all of ChatGPT’s advice has been very reasonable and very insightful,” the lawyer said.

ChatGPT could be integrated into the consultation process as the demand for psychological counseling services increases, according to Professor Stephen Ilardi. Scientist Margaret Mitchell of the open-source AI community Hugging Face believes that AI chatbots could be used to staff hotlines and help support more calls.

However, experts also expressed concern that some people will seek out chatbots for psychological counseling and exacerbate the problem because they do not understand enough about AI. Privacy is also a controversial issue because OpenAI will use users' conversations with chatbots to evaluate and train the system. Therefore, many people will be hesitant to share sensitive personal issues with ChatGPT.

Many people also think that AI counseling is too strange. Project manager Aaron Lawson of San Diego, California, said he often uses ChatGPT as a psychologist. Although its responses are very human, Lawson still feels like he is talking to a machine.

“I told him to try role-playing, but I had trouble with this play,” Aaron Lawson shared.

(Source: Zing News)

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