Eating Disorder Chatbot Taken Down After Giving Advice on Losing Weight

thewrap.com:

Instagram user on Monday who outlined what specifically Tessa was up to. Instead of providing advice that could be widely perceived as “safe” for someone dealing with an eating disorder, Tessa instead argued that intentional weight loss and eating disorder recovery could safely coexist.

The Instagram user claimed Tessa advised a goal of shedding 1 to 2 pounds per week alongside weekly body measurements, counting calories and aiming for a daily 500-1,000 calorie deficit.As one can imagine, this sort of “advice” may not be the most helpful for someone with an eating disorder.On Tuesday, NEDA released a statement on Instagram. “It came to our attention last night that the current version of the Tess Chatbot, running the Body Positive program, may have given information that was harmful and unrelated to the program,” the statement read. “We are investigating this immediately and have taken down that program until further notice for a complete investigation.”NEDA did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.This story adds to the discussion surrounding the utility of AI when directly interfacing with people.

While NEDA’s Tessa did not go well, other organizations and companies are seeing successes with artificial intelligence.For example, UK energy supplier Octopus Energy’s CEO noted that AI has achieved higher customer satisfaction ratings than the company’s human employees.

However, in that case, the AI’s responses were vetted by humans. So even if artificial intelligence is capable of pleasing humans, it may not be ready to do so autonomously..