Trying ChatGPT on a user base isn’t inherently bad. Doing so without their knowledge isn’t inherently bad.
This just blew past several sanity checks. Among other things.
- Users were notified that the posts were written in collaboration with a bot
- Human authors oversaw the posts, including having the ability to edit posts and having responsibility for hitting send.
The lack of informed consent from study participants would likely have killed this experiment in a normal IRB review, but they didn't just sic ChatGPT loose on people seeking psychological help.
Appears to carry more weight than "sanity checks". IME, the latter are often just advisory to catch cases that would be 'insane'.