The big issue
‘That settles it, then,’ I shrugged, feeling a load suddenly lift from my shoulders. It’s been hard to explain my decision to friends and family who watched my excitement grow as I developed my therapy bot. I guess I could liken it to my feelings about caterpillars – I don’t believe they’re inherently bad, but should they proliferate without any checks and balances? No, the effects on the environment would be detrimental. Still, I imagine the conversation going something like this: ‘Hey, we need to slow down on these caterpillars.’ ‘Chill. They turn into butterflies. Why are you hating on butterflies? They’re pretty.’ ‘This is a real issue. What if caterpillars outcompete beetles for food and disrupt their habitat!?’ ‘I don’t know, who cares about beetles?’ ‘Well, beetles are part of the food chain. It’s a problem if caterpillars replace them. The blue jays eat beetles and falcons eat blue jays… It goes all the way up!’ ‘Calm down.’ ‘Think, man! What if the caterpillars are toxic to blue jays? Then the blue jay population goes down. What are the falcons gonna do?’ Similarly, the shift into AI, while seemingly innocuous, could disrupt the whole food chain of cognitive labour, even in the therapeutic milieu. The current capabilities of ChatGPT version 4 are already sufficient to guide couples through Gottman’s ‘rapoport’ intervention, expound on change talk in keeping with the protocols of motivational interviewing, and even conduct some EMDR protocols. It’s not far-fetched to think AI will gain ground with text-based therapy (widely used services like BetterHelp already offer text therapy) and evolve slowly but surely to the point of replacing the vast majority of private practice psychotherapy services. At the moment, we may feel pressure to advance AI therapy technology quickly due ‘Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain…’
millions) of people access to efficacious mental health care, lives will be saved, marriages repaired, childhood traumas healed. Is all that worth forgoing in the name of ‘therapy as we know it’? Is this merely some Luddite conservatism coated in fearmongering? These were all questions I asked myself as I wrestled with what to do with my AI therapy bot. I’d spent over $25,000 on its development, and had good reason to believe it would be very profitable. Was I being too dramatic in holding it back? Or, in releasing it to the public, would I be popularising and creating more of a demand for something that will ultimately be harmful to humankind? A few months ago, as these thoughts weighed heavily on me, I decided to distract myself by picking up JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . In this story, a young girl, Ginny Weasley, finds a magical diary. When she writes in it, a response appears from the encapsulated soul of the diary’s original owner, Tom Riddle. Ginny forms a friendship with the boy, shares her struggles and secrets, and enjoys the companionship of a pen pal from the beyond. Tom is attentive to her troubles, offers advice, and comforts her when she’s distraught. But when she’s caught carrying out unconscious acts of violence, it’s discovered that Ginny was under a trance, being manipulated by a dark wizard who progressively possessed her mind every time she used the diary. When Harry Potter saves the day and returns Ginny to her family, Ginny’s father responds with both relief and outrage: ‘Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain… A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic.’ Reading these words, I felt like the wind was knocked out of me. Dark magic. I put the book down and looked over at my wife. ‘Babe, this AI trauma bot might be a bad idea,’ I whispered. ‘I know! I’ve been telling you that.’ She had been. It was true. ‘It’s creepy.’ ‘Do I just throw it away? We’ve already spent—.’ ‘Yeah, throw it away. It’s super creepy.’ She went back to reading.
to the pace of innovation, but we can step back and proceed carefully. I admit that I don’t know where exactly to draw the line. I like butterflies as much as the next guy – I use social media and ChatGPT often, even in editing this article – but I know there should be a line. My line was the therapy AI bot. I might even draw it back further. As we forge ahead into a future that will inevitably involve AI we need to do so with respect for the power it wields, and some fear. The potential benefits could be limited only by our imaginations, but what will the trade cost us in the end? !
• This is an edited version of an original article reprinted with permission from Psychotherapy Networker .
REFERENCE 1. Hao K. Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows. MIT Technology Review 2021; 16 September.
About the author Matthias Barker specialises in treating complex trauma, childhood abuse and marital issues. He holds a master’s degree in clinical mental health counselling from Northwest University and is currently located in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s widely recognised for his unique approach to making mental health knowledge and skills accessible to the wider public, delivering psychoeducational content to a following of more than three million people on social media. www.matthiasjbarker.com
22 THERAPY TODAY MAY 2024
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