Startup Uses GPT-3 to Provide Counseling and Then Realizes It 'Feels Weird' | Hacker News Reader

Startup Uses GPT-3 to Provide Counseling and Then Realizes It 'Feels Weird'

vice.com

13 pointsKomoD7 comments

Unless I’ve missed something their disclaimer which supposedly “informed” users that the messages were co-written by a bot feels deliberately ambiguous to me:

> “Koko Bot connects you with > real people who truly get you”

What Rob Morris says also makes no sense in my mind.

> We were not pairing people up to chat with GPT-3, without their knowledge.

> Once people learned the messages were co-created by a machine, it didn’t work. Simulated empathy feels weird, empty.

Duh.

We have a vending machine in the lunchroom that says "Thankyou!" in breathy broken English. I am not impressed and have stopped using it. Consumming less junk food is probably better for my physical health as well as my emotional health.

A lot of the benefit of therapy likely comes from the social aspect of feeling understood and seen by another _person_. This can't come from an AI as long as those treated know it's an AI.

Maybe. I've used ChatGPT for "therapy" a few times and I partly agree with you. A couple of times I had a terrible day and found myself even more frustrated after trying to vent to the AI because all it did was offer ideas and lists and elementary explanations of things I already knew.

Other times, it helped me to explore relationships in my life. In that way it worked a little bit like free-writing, but an interactive / guided exercise. It turns out that a little objectivity and reflection was all I needed.

Is it a substitute for a human? No. Then again, are you volunteering to listen to me complain? I don't want to abuse my limited friendships and I'm not going to pay someone.

My frustration was with the limitations of the AI, not the fact that it was a bot. If it remembered my past conversations, built a profile of my personality and preferences, and wasn't such a stick in the mud regarding policy then I suspect the companionship would be socially rewarding, at least to me.

Back in the 1960s, people also reported being helped by talking to ELIZA. Rubber duck effect, as it were. ChatGPT seems about the same.

  > Is it a substitute for a human? No. Then again, are you volunteering to listen to me complain?

People at 7cups.com are volunteering to listen to you complain. As much as you like, on any topic (with obvious caveats around abuse, etc.).

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