Debate: Is it ethical for AI therapists to record your sessions for training data?

I saw a before-and-after difference in my trust level after finding out my BetterHelp equivalent was feeding anonymized transcripts into their model training last month, but on the other side, that data probably helps them catch suicidal ideation patterns faster so which side do you fall on?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellaperry22d ago

Load up your phone with a burner email address and a fake name before you log into therapy tech, that's my advice. I let my guard down with one of those apps and now I'm pretty sure my weird recurring dream about a talking pineapple is helping some algorithm learn about stress eating. But hey, maybe my pineapple confession will save someone from a bad decision someday, so I'm conflicted but laughing about it. Just feels like we're all lab rats in a social experiment we didn't sign up for.

milarodriguez22d ago

@stellaperry maybe the pineapple dream is just your brain's way of testing if AI really knows you.

cole_baker22d ago

Three weeks ago I told one of those meditation apps that I had a stress dream about missing my mail truck. Now every single guided session starts with "picture yourself calmly behind the wheel." Creepy but also kind of helpful, I guess? We're basically feeding these things all our weird little secrets.