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Comment on My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them

I’ve been using AI therapist tools sometimes. I feel torn because I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of my problems are caused by external factors that can’t really be fixed. So would speaking to a real person actually make a difference?

I would probably like to speak with a real therapist, but it’s expensive, time-consuming, and I’ve never met one that I feel can fully relate to or understand me. I always feel like I’m silently judged or like they genuinely have no helpful way to help me. So… in a way, the AI tools can at least let me talk through things and get to a more stable place mentally when I need it.

The whole aspect feels wrong, though. Like I realize that I have a problem, but with little to no ways to actively fix it, I kind of have to accept it and / or ignore it. I can relate in some ways to how these people feel. When I’ve been in a vulnerable state, sometimes having a chat bot reply and bounce ideas back and forth can feel emotionally stimulating and reassuring. I find that alarming sometimes when I take a step back and try to process those feelings, though. Then there’s the whole issue of what these company’s are doing with the data and information gathered from their users.

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jarfil@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Therapists are not supposed to bond with their patients. If you find one whom you can stand for half an hour, then take what you can and leave the rest, they’re not to be your friend or lover. The fact that chatbots let people fall in love with them, is a huge fail from a therapy point of view.

Bouncing ideas back and forth is a good use though. A good prompt I’ve seen recently:

I’m having a persistent problem with [x] despite having taken all the necessary countermeasures I could think of. Ask me enough questions about the problem to find a new approach.

If you worry about privacy, you can run an LLM locally, but it won’t be fast, and you’d need extra steps to enable search.

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- Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Ah, yes, that’s true. Sorry, I’m not sure if it came off that way. It’s not that I’m trying to be friends with a therapist. I just don’t want to feel like I’m being judged or criticized?
  
  I’ve only had a few therapists, and one didn’t really do anything, and it felt like a scam, another one tried having me do CBT and I didn’t really find it very helpful after a while and another seemed OK but also it felt like I was being scrutinized or judged. They seemed like they were analyzing me without giving me anything to take away from the experience.
  
  Thank you for the information. I appreciate it a lot. I’ve thought about running something locally but I’m not sure if it is practical yet depending on how long it takes
  
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