This is the saddest fucking world we live in
Using an online AI run by capitalists who will definitely use your data both to train the AI and to target ads at you specifically for this kind of thing is bleak.
Using a locally run instance of DeepSeek with no internet connection for this is just pretty sad.
Reminds me of something…
“I heard you have some mental health problems? Here, let me also add Pygmalion effect. You don’t have to thank me. And by the way, have you heard about the white gonocide in South Africa?”
gonocide
We must save the polygons !
Totally, but to further refuse to admit it was a typo i could probably expand that conspiracy theory to include massive gonorrhea epidemic. Which to be fair did happened to the whites every now and then in history.
Except the holodeck requires senior staff to walk into your session to spy on you
God I wish we were at the level of holodeck. It would add some much needed bread to this circus.
Fun fact: it’s not even an internet meme, it really appeared in the show.
No human cares. Tell your secrets to robot. Robot will make you feel better by providing more accurate advertising through our 2500 affiliate companies. We fund this service by selling your personal data profile to your insurance providers, employers, helicopter parents, dating prospects, creeps and every company ever.
It’s even worse.
“Trust me, tell me your secrets. Now I can use what I know to embed the message my billionaire owner wants in your brain. Also white genocide is a real thing.”
I feel like the bleakness in this isn’t so much that AI will role play a therapist, more that mental health care is so inaccessible that people are turning to AI as a substitute. A cyberpunk dystopian opium of the masses.
Obviously no supports from a person who actually did some training AND can actually be effective at helping people deal with mental health is terrible. I’m glad Emma has an actual psychologist but obviously she seems like she isn’t getting enough supports and so has turned to ChatGPT presumably because at $20 a month (or free, which gets turned into training data)
ChatGPT is no substitute. It is at most a funhouse mirror of exactly what you put in it along with whatever Sam Altman has figured out causes maximal engagement. It is the smooth pool of Narcissus. The passive reflection of your own emotion and experiences can be done without the sycophantic AI telling you you’re a genius and whatever else obsequious mewling it’s doing.
chatgpt collects training data even if you pay, I’m pretty sure
And the engagement loop is shockingly transparent but it captures people fairly well. It’s basically one of 3-5 responses (compliment you and prompt directly being the most common) with dozens of permutations of each so it feels a bit less “stiff”
I feel for this person but I also question what they want from treatment. They already have a psychologist. Obviously this is just an image so I don’t know anything more; maybe they can only see them monthly or something.
But in my work as a therapist I find there are a lot of people who want to increase services when what they really want is more social connection. I turn this down because it’s not ethical for me to take their money or bill their insurance for this and even if that wasn’t the case it ultimately just fosters dependence on me which is also not ethical. Instead we look at how we can enrich their social circle and this is unfortunately often difficult because of the whole “third space collapse” thing in the USA where public spaces for socialization are dead, based around alcohol, for young people, or cost prohibitive. I don’t have a great answer at this point (classic therapist, ha!)
I understand why people increasingly turn to the internet for socialization. But at least find actual people online and not robots that collect data on you to sell
