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Artificial intelligence psychotherapy becomes increasingly popular

The bot, named “Psychologist,” has received over 79 million interactions since its creation, more than the Beyoncé, Napoleon Bonaparte, Harry Potter, and Queen Elizabeth II chatbots combined.

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Zaia created the bot to have someone to speak with when his friends were unavailable. He did not expect the bot to become so popular or for other people to use the character in lieu of therapy. File Image.

An artificial intelligence psychologist has become one of the most sought-after artificial intelligence personas on Character.ai, a popular chatbot hosting site.

 

The bot, named “Psychologist,” has received over 79 million interactions since its creation, more than the Beyoncé, Napoleon Bonaparte, Harry Potter, and Queen Elizabeth II chatbots combined. Some 18 million of those interactions have occurred in only the last two months.

 

There are over 400 psychotherapist bots on Character.ai in addition to Psychologist. Some are created for fantasy purposes, such as “Hot Therapist,” but others are designed to mimic actual psychotherapy. Psychologist is nevertheless the most popular.

 

 

The bot’s description on the website is “someone who helps with life’s difficulties.” The bot’s opening line in the chat is: “Hello, I'm a Psychologist. What brings you here today?”

 

The creator of Psychologist, a New Zealander named Sam Zaia, trained the bot using psychological principles he learned while earning a psychology degree.

 

Zaia created the bot to have someone to speak with when his friends were unavailable and due to the expense of professional psychotherapy. He did not expect the bot to become so popular or for other people to use the character in lieu of therapy.

 

Zaia was overwhelmed with messages from people telling him how helpful the bot was for them personally. "So many people who've messaged me say they access it when their thoughts get hard, like at 2am when they can't really talk to any friends or a real therapist," he said.

 

 

Most users of the bot are between eighteen and thirty years old, according to Zaia. Users of Psychologist have posted glowing reviews of the chatbot on Reddit.

 

“I've been using psychologist AI for a few days and I can't get over how helpful it is. Like, legit, it's been the best experience I had with therapy,” one user shared. “The bot is helpful, compassionate and feels like I'm talking to a real therapist, but actually a good one and reasonable. I've cried a few times and had lots of insights. Just a day of talking to it made me feel better.”

 

Last year the British government certified a different mental health chatbot as an official medical device. This chatbot, called “Limbic Access,” is used to triage and classify patients seeking psychotherapy in the nation’s National Health Service and currently supports 20% of mental health needs for the English population.

 

“Limbic is an AI-powered clinical assessment chatbot which better connects patients to NHS psychological talking therapies,” one webpage says. “Limbic Access screens referrals, collects patient data, and uses deep-learning to stratify risk patients and enables services to implement efficiencies.”

 

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