Sitdown Sunday: The rise and danger of AI therapy bots

IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.

We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.

1. My AI therapist

As Jess McAllen writes, therapists in the US can be hard to find, cost a lot of money and sometimes don’t take insurance – so naturally, they now come in the form of AI therapy bots.

She explores what future these bots – who are not equipped to deal with the complexities of mental health – have in the care world, and how dangerous they might be. 

(The Baffler, approx 21 mins reading time)

The website for the AI therapy tool Elomia claims that 85 percent of clients felt better after their first conversation, and that in 40 percent of cases, “that’s the only help needed.” But much like certain therapists who refuse to take on clients with a history of hospitalization, AI therapy works best when you discuss predictable life events, like, “My boyfriend and I broke up.” A break-up! The bots have trained their whole lives for this. AI mirrors traditional mental health treatment in that more generic problems are still prioritized over complex mental health needs – until someone gets to the point of inpatient hospitalization, at least, and by then they’ve already suffered considerable distress. AI is meant to fill treatment gaps, whether their causes are financial, geographic, or societal. But the very people who fall into these gaps are the ones who tend to need more complex care, which AI cannot provide. The data has been consistent for many decades: serious mental illness is highly correlated with systemic racism, poverty, and the kinds of abuse that might create trust issues around seeing a human therapist. Those with serious mental illness are still left behind in the brave new world of mental health awareness, even when that world is virtual.

2. My husband became a conspiracy theorist

Lucille Howe writes about how her husband’s increasing fixation on conspiracies, financial scams and flat-Earth theories put a great strain on their marriage.

(The Guardian, approx 17 mins reading time)

It’s hard to pinpoint the moment that Arlo went down the conspiracy rabbit hole. Today, he can’t even answer the question for himself. He thinks it may have started with a conversation he had in the park, or a film he saw. He’d read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four at school and it had stayed with him. What came next was a slow radicalisation through his screens and the people he met online. Maybe a curiosity fed into an algorithm that became an echo chamber. Who knows? 

3. The new nuclear arms race

With Putin’s threats in Ukraine, China’s accelerated weapons programme and the US’s desire for superiority, Jessica T Matthews investigates what it will take for leaders to step back from the brink.

(The Guardian, approx 17 mins reading time) 

With tensions among the great powers at a post-cold war high, a new nuclear arms race is beginning. This one will be far more dangerous than the first. It will be a three-sided race – now including China – and thus much more unstable than a two-sided one. And it will be amplified by the advent of cyberweapons, AI, the possible weaponisation of space, the ability to locate submarines deep in the ocean and other technological advances.

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4. Deaths in custody

Over 480 people died in police custody or operations across 13 EU countries – including Ireland – over a period of three years. This investigation looks into the figures and the gaps in the data.

(TheJournal Investigates, approx 15 mins reading time) 

Ireland featured among the countries with the highest number of people per population who died in police custody or operations between 2020 and 2022. But, it should be noted, Irish authorities record all deaths in such circumstances, unlike some member states who have incomplete or no data on the issue. For example, in Germany, the federal government still only collects figures on police-related shooting deaths, as does Sweden. France has the highest absolute figures – 107 deaths. It is followed by Ireland (72), Spain (66) and Germany (60).

5. Inked

Jackson Arn visits the New York Tattoo Convention to learn more about why people get inked and what sets the painful art form apart from the rest. 

(The New Yorker, approx 13 mins reading time)

On my first day, I met a middle-aged man named Dave, a loyal customer of Soul Kraft Ink Tattoos, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. His left leg won Best Leg Sleeve at the Baltimore Tattoo Arts Festival, and his left forearm is quilted with the Duomo of Florence, Michelangelo’s David and “The Creation of Adam,” and a starry-nighted Vincent van Gogh. He spoke about Abraham, the artist who put everything in place, with reverent warmth, and for much of the weekend he lay on his side while Abraham decorated his right calf. To my eyes, Dave gave every indication of having done this for decades, but at the beginning of last year he had no tattoos at all. His first, a tiny blue-and-green matryoshka doll, was a girlfriend’s idea, off Pinterest, in the pre-Abraham era. It’s still on his right arm for now, above a half-completed sleeve by a different artist—Dave’s skin has had many suitors, though sheer surface area makes his favorite clear. “Abraham’s my buddy,” he told me. “He calls me up, says, ‘I have an idea, can I put it on you?’ ” There is a large tattoo of a woman’s face on Dave’s leg. When I asked him who she was, he told me he hadn’t a clue.

6. Still trapped

Hasan Imam, a member of China’s persecuted Uyghur population, fled the country in 2014, but spent years in Thai immigration detention centres as a result. His experience is similar to that of thousands of Uyghurs who are tracked when they leave China. 

(The New York Times, approx 43 mins reading time) 

Chinese authorities branded all such migration as “hijrah terrorism” and demanded that other countries arrest and repatriate Uyghur asylum seekers. Their demands have become increasingly difficult to refuse. In the years since the exodus began, China’s influence in Southeast Asia – in the form of investments, aid and military agreements – has grown considerably, and with it the ability to pursue Uyghurs wherever they may go. As a result, more than a decade after leaving home, many have found neither safety nor refuge. Hundreds have been forcibly returned to China, and hundreds more have been imprisoned or detained for years. They believe the world has abandoned them.

…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

7. The Curse of the Bahia Emerald, a Giant Green Rock That Ruins Lives

Meet the schemers, investors, and dreamers who were bewitched by a big green rock that might not actually be worth anything.

(Wired Magazine)

Over the past 10 years, four lawsuits have been filed over the Bahia emerald. Fourteen individuals or entities, plus the nation of Brazil, have claimed the rock is theirs. A house burned down. Three people filed for bankruptcy. One man alleges having been kidnapped and held hostage. Many of the men involved say that the emerald is hellspawn but they also can’t let it go. As Brian Brazeal, an anthropologist at California State University Chico, wrote in a paper entitled The Fetish and the Stone: A Moral Economy of Charlatans and Thieves, “Emeralds can take over the lives of well-meaning devotees and lead them down the road to perdition.” 

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