After having suicidal thoughts this year, Brittany Bucicchia checked herself into a mental health facility near her home in rural Georgia.
When she left several days later, her doctors recommended that she continue treatment with a psychotherapist. But she was wary of traditional therapy after frustrating experiences in the past, so her husband suggested an alternative he had found online — a therapy chatbot, Ash, powered by artificial intelligence.
Ms. Bucicchia said it had taken a few days to get used to talking and texting with Ash, which responded to her questions and complaints, provided summaries of their conversations and suggested topics she could think about. But soon, she started leaning on it for emotional support, sharing the details of her daily life as well as her hopes and fears.
At one point, she said, she recounted a difficult memory about her time in a mental health facility. The chatbot replied that if she was having suicidal thoughts, she should contact a professional and gave her a toll-free number to call.
“There was a learning curve,” Ms. Bucicchia, 37, said. “But it ended up being what I needed. It challenged me, asked a lot of questions, remembered what I had said in the past and went back to those moments when it needed to.”
Ms. Bucicchia’s experience is part of an experimental and growing effort to provide automated alternatives to traditional therapy, using chatbots. That has led to questions about whether these chatbots, which are built by tech start-ups and academics, should be regulated as medical devices. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration held its first public hearing to explore that issue.