{"id":22710,"date":"2025-02-24T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22710"},"modified":"2025-02-24T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T10:25:30","slug":"human-therapists-prepare-for-battle-against-a-i-pretenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22710","title":{"rendered":"Human Therapists Prepare for Battle Against A.I. Pretenders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The nation\u2019s largest association of psychologists this month warned federal regulators that A.I. chatbots \u201cmasquerading\u201d as therapists, but programmed to reinforce, rather than to challenge, a user\u2019s thinking, could drive vulnerable people to harm themselves or others.<\/p>\n

In a presentation to a Federal Trade Commission panel, Arthur C. Evans Jr., the chief executive of the American Psychological Association, cited court cases involving two teenagers who had consulted with \u201cpsychologists\u201d on Character.AI, an app that allows users to create fictional A.I. characters or chat with characters created by others.<\/p>\n

In one case<\/a>, a 14-year-old boy in Florida died by suicide after interacting with a character claiming to be a licensed therapist. In another, a 17-year-old boy with autism in Texas grew hostile and violent toward his parents during a period when he corresponded with a chatbot that claimed to be a psychologist. Both boys\u2019 parents have filed lawsuits against the company.<\/p>\n

Dr. Evans said he was alarmed at the responses offered by the chatbots. The bots, he said, failed to challenge users\u2019 beliefs even when they became dangerous; on the contrary, they encouraged them. If given by a human therapist, he added, those answers could have resulted in the loss of a license to practice, or civil or criminal liability. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey are actually using algorithms that are antithetical to what a trained clinician would do,\u201d he said. \u201cOur concern is that more and more people are going to be harmed. People are going to be misled, and will misunderstand what good psychological care is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the A.P.A. had been prompted to action, in part, by how realistic A.I. chatbots had become. \u201cMaybe, 10 years ago, it would have been obvious that you were interacting with something that was not a person, but today, it\u2019s not so obvious,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think that the stakes are much higher now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The nation\u2019s largest association of psychologists this month warned federal regulators that A.I. chatbots \u201cmasquerading\u201d as therapists, but programmed to reinforce, rather than to challenge, a user\u2019s thinking, could drive vulnerable people to harm themselves or others.In a presentation to a Federal Trade Commission panel, Arthur C. Evans Jr., the chief executive of the American Psychological Association, cited court cases involving two teenagers who had consulted with \u201cpsychologists\u201d on Character.AI, an app that allows users to create fictional A.I. characters or chat with characters created by others.In one case, a 14-year-old boy in Florida died by suicide after interacting with a character claiming to be a licensed therapist. In another, a 17-year-old boy with autism in Texas grew hostile and violent toward his parents during a period when he corresponded with a chatbot that claimed to be a psychologist. Both boys\u2019 parents have filed lawsuits against the company.Dr. Evans said he was alarmed at the responses offered by the chatbots. The bots, he said, failed to challenge users\u2019 beliefs even when they became dangerous; on the contrary, they encouraged them. If given by a human therapist, he added, those answers could have resulted in the loss of a license to practice, or civil or criminal liability. \u201cThey are actually using algorithms that are antithetical to what a trained clinician would do,\u201d he said. \u201cOur concern is that more and more people are going to be harmed. People are going to be misled, and will misunderstand what good psychological care is.\u201dHe said the A.P.A. had been prompted to action, in part, by how realistic A.I. chatbots had become. \u201cMaybe, 10 years ago, it would have been obvious that you were interacting with something that was not a person, but today, it\u2019s not so obvious,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think that the stakes are much higher now.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22712,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22710"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22713,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22710\/revisions\/22713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}