JOHANNESBURG/LONDON ¨C Mental health counselor Nicole Doyle was stunned when the head of the U.S. National Eating Disorders Association showed up at a staff meeting to announce the group would be replacing its helpline with a chatbot.
A few days after the helpline was taken down, the bot ¡ª named Tessa ¡ª would also be discontinued for providing harmful advice to people in the throes of mental illness.
¡°People ... found it was giving out weight loss advice to people who told it they were struggling with an eating disorder,¡± said Doyle, 33, one of five workers who were let go in March, about a year after the chatbot was launched.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.