ONE HUNDRED days into the battle in Gaza, I used to be discovering it more and more troublesome to learn the information. My husband instructed me it is likely to be time to speak to a therapist. As a substitute, on a chilly winter morning, after having fought again tears studying one more story of human tragedy, I turned to synthetic intelligence.
“I’m feeling fairly bummed out concerning the state of the world,” I typed into ChatGPT. “It’s fully comprehensible to really feel overwhelmed,” it responded, earlier than providing a listing of pragmatic recommendation: restrict media publicity, deal with the constructive and practise self-care.
I closed the chat. Whereas I used to be positive I may gain advantage from doing all of this stuff, at that second, I didn’t really feel significantly better.

It may appear unusual that AI may even try to supply this sort of help. However hundreds of thousands of individuals are already turning to ChatGPT and specialist remedy chatbots, which supply handy and cheap psychological well being help. Even docs are purportedly utilizing AI to assist craft extra empathetic notes to sufferers.
Some consultants say it is a boon. In spite of everything, AI, unhindered by embarrassment and burnout, may be capable to categorical empathy extra brazenly and tirelessly than people. “We reward empathetic AI,” one group of psychology researchers just lately wrote.
However others aren’t so positive. Many query the concept that an AI may ever be able to empathy, and fear concerning the penalties of individuals searching for emotional help from machines that may solely faux to care. Some even surprise if the rise of so-called empathetic AI may change the way in which we conceive of…