4mo ago

Mom horrified by Character.AI chatbots posing as son who died by suicide - Ars Technica

arstechnica.com

Mom horrified by Character.AI chatbots posing as son who died by suicide

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About 3 percent of students in the study had positive mental health outcomes, reporting that talking to the chatbot "halted their suicidal ideation." But researchers also found "there are some cases where their use is either negligible or might actually contribute to suicidal ideation."
This is referring to a bot designed to help with people struggling with mental health, and is actually a big one. That number is way too low.
- “hey, I know you feel like killing yourself, but if it happens then we’ll just replace you with a shitty bot” probably isn’t as helpful as they thought it would be. It’s violating and ghoulish.
  
  I hate this attitude of "well if you can't get a professional therapist, figure out how to get one anyways". There needs to be an option for people who either can't afford or can't access a therapist. I would have loved for AI to fill that gap. I understand it won't be as good, but in many regions the wait-list for therapy is far too long, and something is better than nothing
Imagine a 3% success rate being acceptable in any situation. That tends to get you fired.
- 3% success vs what? 6% sent over the edge? 10% 20% ?
  If the journalist asked for a specific figure but was evaded then it should be stated in the article.
  
  I don't much like that take. Ars commits excellent journalism.
  From the story:
  About 3 percent of students in the study had positive mental health outcomes, reporting that talking to the chatbot "halted their suicidal ideation." But researchers also found "there are some cases where their use is either negligible or might actually contribute to suicidal ideation."
Wasn't this an episode of Black Mirror back when it was still really good?
- Yeah, I know someone who won't watch that episode again because of how unsettling it is. Luckily for them, it's slowly becoming reality.
- I watched until season 6 and all of it was really amazing. Is S7 bad?
  
  Nah, not particularly... If you like it up til then, you will probably like it.
  It's not that I think it got bad or anything, but I think there was a noticeable drop in quality from season 3 to season 4 (the second Netflix season).
  The first two seasons, when it was still on Channel 4 in the UK, were just so fucking good. Only a few episodes each, but man. And the Christmas episode with Jon Hamm, goddamn. So fucking good. Some of the best sci-fi ever put to film imo.
  Then Netflix bought it. Season 3 was good, it had some bangers (I imagine Charlie Brooker had some of the plots ready to go already). Then... I don't know maybe it's because they were pushed to write like 3x more episodes per season? The quality suffered.
  The show is still solid, and I will watch the new season for sure. But I don't know, it's just not the same as it was.
Oh hey, reality being even worse than Black Mirror again 😿
This will become more common. I've seen dead people involved in scams on the internet.

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