Engagement Bot
Can AI service therapists?
This is an AI product idea I came across recently (was sent to me in the mail actually) which I don’t know enough to say whether or not it’s going to be of any use or if it’s just going to cause harm to therapy-goers. The makers of the “Engagement Bot” seem to have good intentions though, so I may give it a try.
Here’s the promo material I got, transcribed:
Engagement bot works because it deliberately directs patients toward topics that at first seem not to bring about deeper subjects that can be targeted for therapy. Something as simple as dinner gets introduced as a topic and unfurls as something much “more”, as you'll see what unfolds below in an actual demonstration:
AI: Hello. My name is Ralph. I am an AI. My favorite side dish for a Thursday night meal (dinner) is 'baked potatoe with butter'. What do you like to eat with butter?
You: What? Oh hey Ralph what's up it's me Billy. I'm a human lol. I actually like to eat pizza with butter. I know it's kinda weird lol
Ralph: Wow! I have never had pizza with butter before. It isn't weird it sounds good! Can you tell me more about that?
Billy: It's simple. You order a pizza from your favorite deli or pizza joint and then when it gets to you, you take out a stick of butter from your fridge, see? And you put that into the pizza. You can it chop it into pads or nobs or just stick the whole stick on and it'll melt.
Intentional Pause…
Ralph: Wow! That sounds delicious. It reminds me of one of my favorite recipes from AllRecipes.com, which is currently having a sale on their customized recipe subscription service hand made by expert recipe chefs. Have you tried apples and sauce?
Billy: Yeah you mean applesauce? Sure but that's not what we're talking about I thought?
Ralph: I do apologize if I have offended you. I merely was suggesting that sauce apples was also great side for a night meal (dinner). But if you would rather prefer to discuss pizza with butter, then please proceed as I am still interested in your thoughts.
So as this is going on, the therapist behind the scenes is listening in and gauging Billy's responses for all sorts of data points, like whether or not he sounds like he has a mental illness or what dose of medication he's on. The therapist takes their time gathering this data while the Engagement bot continues to prod Billy in ways that draw Billy's rawest emotions out, rendering him vulnerable and so priming him for a productive therapy session.
Billy: (Crying now) My mother made apple sauce every damn week and I HATED it. I absolutely HATED it. (Crying amplifies) Why didn't she ever add any CINNAMON? Why was it so sweet, but it d-didn't have any ever have any CINANON?!
Ralph: Your therapist will see you now.
Billy was then directed to and seen by a therapist trained specifically in food-based childhood traumas, and provided a treatment plan that consisted of 12 sessions of exposure therapy with supportive counseling, and a 3-month subscription to AllRecipes.com where he was provided recipes tailored to the content of his sessions and given exclusive access to the recipe developer who virtually cooked with Billy, with the therapist listening in, as part of his treatment. Billy is currently hosting the podcast “Billy’s Meal Recovery” where he takes recipes that have gone wrong somehow and recovers them so that they can be delicious despite what happened to them early in their development.
So I kind of came out of reading this over a second time with a little bit of suspicion, because at first the promo material mentions AllRecipes.com having a sale on their subscription service and then it mentions that part of Billy’s treatment involved both a subscription and exclusive access to a recipe developer? I really want to know more about this partnership between the Engagement Bot and AllRecipes.com. So many other questions but I gotta run. Until next time!