The Pitfalls of Using ChatGPT for Therapy

AI can be useful for several reasons. Helping to format a document, finding a quick answer to a question online, or even to boost some creativity when feeling stuck. Yet, there are some ways that artificial intelligence can be too convenient and even dangerous if we aren’t careful. Using ChatGPT and other AI platforms for therapeutic advice has been on the rise. People may be drawn to use it as such for its efficiency, cost effectiveness, and directness. While there is some truth in that, it is important to remember that there are several shortcomings to utilizing AI platforms as a replacement for therapy. 

1. There are Limits to Confidentiality

When seeing a therapist, you are protected by individual rights and safeguards that are established by HIPPA. This means that all of your personal information is handled with ethical consideration and cannot be sold, distributed, or disclosed. When you utilize an AI platform you are not guaranteed these protections. 

2. Lack of Ethical Considerations

Although AI can be helpful for a quick answer, there isn’t a moral and ethical compass that the responses work within. One of the ethical guidelines that therapists operate under is ‘do no harm.’ This is essential when implementing therapeutic techniques to ensure that the client is safe while in the care of the provider. ChatGPT and other AI platforms do not have the critical thinking capability to discern if the feedback being provided is safe and furthermore cannot constitute what would be considered harmful in a therapeutic setting. 

3. Unsustainable Continuation of Care

Through using AI, the AI can grow to ‘know’ us. It can create assumptions about what type of feedback and responses are helpful and unhelpful to the user. However, there is a lack of capability when it comes to establishing ongoing care that is reflective and deep. There may be moments where there can be short-term reassurance provided, but these moments aren’t a substitute for a therapist who can track different milestones, growth-markers, and changes within our mental health over an extended period of time. 

4. The Inability to Challenge

What can be most helpful in therapy can be the ways that a therapist can challenge their client. Challenging a client doesn’t mean that the therapist is insisting that the client is incorrect, it is more of a compassionate inquiry of how a person might be able to change their stance or being exploratory with a client to come up with a collaborative solution to an issue. AI is built to be agreeable. Most of the time, AI can provide short stints of encouragement, but it isn’t designed or equipped to recognize thought patterns and ways of coping that may need to shift or evolve for a client to achieve their goals and break cycles of dysfunction. 

5. Lack of Rapport 

When we think of therapy, it is often depicted as advice giving. While this is a part of therapy, there are so many other aspects of sessions that extend outside the confines of simply giving advice. Making space for people to spend uninterrupted time just focusing on themselves, human connection, and empathetic support are all aspects of therapy that are essential to the success of a therapeutic relationship. While AI can mimic empathy and appear to be supportive, we must remember that there is no warmth or intent to support an individual outside of the objective of a person using the platform. The trust in a therapeutic relationship can be transformative to the process of therapy, and is one that is void in the use of AI.

While there are other forms of shortcomings present when utilizing AI as therapy, they may be hard to suss out. These are the bigger, more glaring issues that we see as being disruptive to an individual's therapeutic growth and change. While there are obvious advantages such as quickness, cost effectiveness, and the ability to stay at the surface, seeing a therapist might be worth the time and energy for the more sustainable and long lasting results. 

The information on this website is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition and is not a substitute for therapy. If you are experiencing an emergency please call/text 988 or go to your nearest emergency room.