It’s true that some people do find large language models (LLMs) useful for navigating depression. After all, nearly half of people in the U.S. who need mental health care are unable to access it. In this vacuum, chatbots offer a space to vent. But unlike actual therapy, these people aren’t speaking to a trained doctor. Instead, they’re confiding in an algorithm that is incapable of thinking or feeling (even if it may seem otherwise).
“I try to withhold judgment overall,” Dr. Nick Haber, a Stanford professor researching the therapeutic potential of LLMs, told TechCrunch. “I think we’re getting into a very complex world around the sorts of relationships that people can have with these technologies … There’s certainly a knee jerk reaction that [human-chatbot companionship] is categorically bad.”
