Imagine a world where a distressed teen wakes up in the middle of the night and opens an app on her phone to talk about the pain of not fitting in at school or missing her friends after moving to a new city. This is the new Big Tech solution for the youth mental health crisis: therapy with a chatbot available at every child’s fingertips via a smartphone. With artificial intelligence (AI) infiltrating mental health care, all it takes is a simple Google search to yield the illusion of connection.
Yet some experts argue that the promise of having a therapist in every teen’s pocket is the opposite of what kids really need: genuine human connection. “Kids these days need to learn how to unplug and be outside and away from their devices,” said Ms. Garfield-Jaeger, who is skeptical of “more tech” coming to their rescue.
She added that many people come to therapy because of issues with relationships, and “they need an empathetic relationship with another human.” According to Woebot Health’s website, more than 80 percent of the messages from teens to Woebot are received outside of typical provider hours “when no other care is available.” Many of these texts come in between 3:00 a.
m. and 5:00 a.m.
Psychologist Alison Darcy, the founder and president of Woebot Health, created the AI chatbot in 2017 with youth in mind. She recently told 60 Minutes that Woebot employs cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques to help users reframe thoughts. According to Ms.
Darcy.
