This stuff is a nightmare scenario for the vulnerable.
https://hai.stanford.edu/news/exploring-the-dangers-of-ai-in...
https://idfpr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idfpr/news...
I get the impression that it is now illegal in Illinois to claim that an AI chatbot can take the place of a licensed therapist or counselor. That doesn't mean people can't do what they want with AI. It only means that counseling services can't offer AI as a cheaper replacement for a real person.
Am I wrong? This sounds good to me.
There is a specific section that relates to how a licensed professional can use AI:
Section 15. Permitted use of artificial intelligence.
(a) As used in this Section, "permitted use of artificial intelligence" means the use of artificial intelligence tools or systems by a licensed professional to assist in providing administrative support or supplementary support in therapy or psychotherapy services where the licensed professional maintains full responsibility for all interactions, outputs, and data use associated with the system and satisfies the requirements of subsection (b).
(b) No licensed professional shall be permitted to use artificial intelligence to assist in providing supplementary support in therapy or psychotherapy where the client's therapeutic session is recorded or transcribed unless:
(1) the patient or the patient's legally authorized representative is informed in writing of the following:
(A) that artificial intelligence will be used; and
(B) the specific purpose of the artificial intelligence tool or system that will be used; and
(2) the patient or the patient's legally authorized representative provides consent to the use of artificial intelligence.
Source: Illinois HB1806
https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus/FullText?GAID=18...
It's not obvious to me as a non-lawyer whether a chat history could be decided to be "therapy" in a courtroom. If so, this could count as a violation. Probably lots of law around this stuff for lawyers and doctors cornered into giving advice at parties already that might apply (e.g., maybe a disclaimer is enough to workaround the prohibition)?
https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus/FullText?GAID=18...
Therapists are more valuable that advice from a random friend (for therapy at least) because they can act when triage is necessary (e.g. send in the men in white coats, or refer to something that's not just CBT) and mostly because they're really good at cutting through the bullshit without having the patient walk out.
AIs are notoriously bad at cutting through bullshit. You can always 'jailbreak' an AI, or convince it of bad ideas. It's entirely counterproductive to enable their crazy (sorry, 'maladaptive') behaviour but that's what a lot of AIs will do.
Even if someone makes a good AI, there's always a bad AI in the next tab, and people will just open up a new tab to find an AI gives them the bad advice they want, because if they wanted to listen to good advice they probably wouldn't need to see a therapist. If doctor shopping is as fast and free as opening a new tab, most mental health patients will find a bad doctor rather than listen to a good one.
lukev•37m ago
create-username•32m ago
Tetraslam•21m ago
kirubakaran•15m ago
kirubakaran•21m ago
[1] https://futurism.com/former-ceo-uber-ai
[2] If you need /s here to be sure, perhaps it's time for some introspection
perlgeek•19m ago
On the other hand, I could image some more narrow uses where an LLM could help.
For example, in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, there are different methods that are pretty prescriptive, like identifying cognitive distortions in negative thoughts. It's not too hard to imagine an app where you enter a negative thought on your own and exercise finding distortions in it, and a specifically trained LLM helps you find more distortions, or offer clearer/more convincing versions of thoughts that you entered yourself.
I don't have a WaPo subscription, so I cannot tell which of these two very different things have been banned.
delecti•7m ago
It would still need a therapist to set you on the right track for independent work, and has huge disadvantages compared to the current state-of-the-art, a paper worksheet that you fill out with a pen.