ChatGPT 4.0 as therapist. Here is the transcript of AI's "dialogue" with an anxious college student. See for yourself how intelligently you think it engaged with Hal and his struggles.
My immediate impression is that while the ai therapist talks way too much, this method really isn’t that different from how I’ve seen chat gpt, bing, and Claude respond to other kinds of questions, and I generally find their responses to questions helpful or interesting if sometimes very wrong. Asking it to “be” a therapist changes the content of its answers, but not the general way that it responds to people
At the same time, this kind of very prescriptive, very answer based, psychoeducation style…well it definitely isn’t for me (as either a patient or therapist) but I know a fair number of *human* therapists who respond like that, so I could definitely imagine ai filling that role at some point. Whether it can slow down, shut up, and do more psychodynamic therapy…gun to my head I would say no but if it does it would (I suspect) have to work very differently than this
Great observations, Charlie. I think you're right that AI will soon fill some of the CBT, DBT--and other more prescriptive "manualized" treatment protocols. But for the time being I don't see it being anywhere close to engaging in psychodynamic therapy. I'm tempted to say it will need a body, and interoception, among other things, before it gets far in that domain.
Without even reading the content you can easily compare the bold and italic text and see that the client can barely get a word in edgewise...I'm no expert but that seems like a big ol' red flag to me!
My immediate impression is that while the ai therapist talks way too much, this method really isn’t that different from how I’ve seen chat gpt, bing, and Claude respond to other kinds of questions, and I generally find their responses to questions helpful or interesting if sometimes very wrong. Asking it to “be” a therapist changes the content of its answers, but not the general way that it responds to people
At the same time, this kind of very prescriptive, very answer based, psychoeducation style…well it definitely isn’t for me (as either a patient or therapist) but I know a fair number of *human* therapists who respond like that, so I could definitely imagine ai filling that role at some point. Whether it can slow down, shut up, and do more psychodynamic therapy…gun to my head I would say no but if it does it would (I suspect) have to work very differently than this
Great observations, Charlie. I think you're right that AI will soon fill some of the CBT, DBT--and other more prescriptive "manualized" treatment protocols. But for the time being I don't see it being anywhere close to engaging in psychodynamic therapy. I'm tempted to say it will need a body, and interoception, among other things, before it gets far in that domain.
Without even reading the content you can easily compare the bold and italic text and see that the client can barely get a word in edgewise...I'm no expert but that seems like a big ol' red flag to me!
It is, Juliet--and just one of the big ole red flags.
The advice seems generic...it doesn't feel like an exchange between two humans. Oh wait a minute...
Yikes! The AI therapist does most of the talking! No wonder Hal gives up and “has to go to class.”
Exactly, Martha! That's one of many things I also noticed.
A bit clinical, but this is precisely where clinical is a virtue, as you’ve set it up at least
Right. The idea was to imagine a person prompting AI in a straightforward, even naive, way and see what they got back.