A.I. Therapist: Yay or Nay? | Hacker News Reader

A.I. Therapist: Yay or Nay?

2 pointsshash_27087 comments

So a few months ago, I built this A.I. Therapist which does not give static answers and first tries to ask relevant questions and only then give a solution. This was my attempt to simulate an actual therapy session, because my friend couldn't afford therapy.

I later publish the app on Playstore by the name Therapo.

The idea is that since a lot of people believe in their religious scriptures, you will directly be able to talk one scripture from your religion. Right now, only a few religions were added.

The thing is that it helped 2 of my friends and one of my friends parents were going through a divorce but after using the app, they decided to give their marriage another shot.

This sounds very cool and overwhelming but I am not able to decide if I should even pursue this idea in the first place.

Would love some criticism.

View on HN

Apologies if this question sounds rude, but what does your app have over ChatGPT? I tried asking ChatGPT a few therapy-style questions; the answers were a bit generic but I could see getting some interesting responses if I tried harder.

I'm curious what's required to build an AI app. I assume that you did not build your own LLM model from scratch; what did you program?

In any case, I would not deem anything from an AI reliable -- but an app where you could ask questions like "I'm in difficult situation X; what are some things I might try?" and where the cost of trying something that doesn't work out is low, seems like it could be interesting.

I'd be cautious about providing direct solutions, but generating and asking questions using AI, based on the context the user provides, could potentially help them see their issues from different angles and possibly uncover blind spots. This is what I've been doing at https://www.deepwander.com

In my opinion it's not a good idea to use chatbots in the medical/self-help space. Poor treatment (a session) could damage somebody's life. Therapists are supposed to be people 1) that we can trust; 2) people with which we can talk about sensitive topics; and 3) people that can understand nuanced social situations. It's not clear to me that chatbots fit these requirements.

I mean, it's easy to make money giving advice. But there should be some level of accountability if the person giving the advice is supposed to be an expert who is looking out for us. Personally I think a big component of therapy is just being heard by another human being.

Going back to your post though, you indicated that your chatbot would have a narrower responsibility? If that's the case, then you should advertise it as such and not call it a therapist.

Thank you for insight. I will definitely keep this mind and will probably not pursue it.

As someone who’s been through a lot of therapy. They all pretty much sucked. I’d say ai can disrupt this niche rather easily.

Why do you think an AI will be better?

I just think it has the ability to pull from a lot of sources in helping a patient.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com