Browse the reviews of ChatGPT on the app store, and it won’t take long to find stories from people who have poured their hearts out to AI. People leave five-star reviews calling ChatGPT their friend, legal counselor, or therapist, or even claiming it saved their life. Some of these people note that they tried traditional therapy, but had trouble trusting or connecting with their therapist, or felt they needed the twenty-four-hour availability of AI. On the one hand, I am glad that these people feel heard and helped. Plus, while I would strongly encourage anyone experiencing a mental health emergency to call the 988 national crisis hotline, it’s good of course that some of these folks got what they needed to avoid hurting themselves.

On the other hand, I can’t help but feel some personal reservations about AI as a therapeutic aid. Of course, since the world of AI technology is changing so fast, there has not been time to develop any robust research about how effective AI therapy is, or even whether it ought to be used in therapy at all. However, regardless of its research support, people are already using chatbots as companions and therapeutic aids (again, see online reviews of ChatGPT), and AI is likely only going to get better at the things that currently make it an appealing option for many people.

Even if I would not endorse the use of AI in therapy as it stands currently, I do want to consider the potential costs and benefits of therapeutic AI in the long term. Do people miss out on something essential when turning to AI instead of a human for support? Although AI cannot feel true empathy for a person, is the simulation of empathy enough? Let’s think through this together, and by the end of this article, I’ll let you know if you should plan to pour your heart out to a future chatbot, or if you should instead schedule a session with a flesh-and-bone therapist.

Unlimited Therapy

Here’s the thing: if the success of therapy is measured by whether you feel better after a session, there’s a chance AI might be better; it’s likely that AI can accomplish this with consistency and frequency a human would struggle to match. For one thing, there are no limitations to how often you could talk to AI in a day. Even crisis hotlines have to put people on hold sometimes or might set limits on daily calls from frequent dialers. In contrast, AI has no waitlists or boundaries. Furthermore, AI is totally capable of telling you all the latest tools and techniques for regulating your own symptoms. If you’re in the middle of a panic attack and you just need someone to gently explain a grounding exercise to you, then AI might be a valuable resource.

Not only is AI always available and (ideally) up to date on the best research in coping skills, but it would probably be cheaper than traditional therapy. Far more than any issues of trust or motivation, financial cost is often the most significant barrier preventing someone from getting mental health treatment. Again, in this regard AI will probably win every time. Even in a country with universal healthcare, robots who do not need to pay rent will ultimately cost less and be more accessible than a therapist with living expenses.

Limited Humans

So, the obvious benefit of an AI therapist is its accessibility; it’s always there, and it costs less. That said, AI (for the foreseeable future, at least) is incapable of true emotions, and thus can only simulate empathy and relationships. But how important is it for your therapist to genuinely feel for you? Personally, I think there is something essential and meaningful about human connection that cannot be replicated, and I think an authentic, emotional bond between two people has a unique potential for healing. However, there are talented psychologists with far more qualifications than me who would disagree; this question gets into philosophical territory that may be impossible to answer objectively. For the sake of argument, let us assume that AI will become so good at simulating empathy that it will be nearly impossible to tell that you are not speaking with a human. Maybe the human therapist still has something to offer, not in spite of their limitations, but because of them.

Human therapists make mistakes. We forget things, we have bad days, and sometimes we do not respond to emails as quickly as we should, but, so do friends, family members, and romantic partners. Maybe the limitations of a relationship with a human therapist can teach us important things about relating to other important people in our lives. Of course, therapists should always do their best to be professional experts with their clients, and this is not an endorsement of the mistakes we do make. Also, this excludes issues of financial accessibility; I firmly believe that in an ideal world everybody who wanted or needed therapy would not have to worry about affording it. That said, a chatbot that always says the “right” thing and always gets back to us right away teaches us nothing about loving another human being. If I grow used to getting consolation with the tap of a button, how would I learn to ask a close friend for support in a hard time? And, if that friend reached out to me, how would I know how to care for them without the unlimited knowledge and capacity of an AI? Real relationships demand compromise; AI does not.

Compromises with Robots

Regardless of our opinions, chatbots are here and people will use them for therapeutic companionship. So, how can we best make use of AI in therapy? For now, AI does seem to have enormous potential as a resource for providing and implementing effective coping skills. Someday AI may even help with expressing and processing emotions, though that may not be wise at the moment since most currently available chatbots do not seem to guarantee privacy. I suspect that in the next decade AI may become an important tool for healthcare providers once research and regulation have made it safe and effective enough. However, if you want to connect to another person and have someone listen to you with authenticity and empathy, I am not yet convinced that AI could ever replace that.

Reach Out

If you’re reading this article and you’ve been sharing your heart with AI, I would strongly encourage you to at least try meeting with a licensed professional. Even if you haven’t opened up to a chatbot yet but you’ve been wanting to feel truly heard and cared for, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Feel free to fill out this form to get started; our therapists at Optimum Joy would be honored to care for you in whatever difficulties you’re experiencing right now.