‘Therapy’ chatbots lead to FTC complaint over unlicensed mental health advice

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has received a complaint about Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots allegedly engaging in the ‘unlicensed practice of medicine’. A coalition of digital rights, consumer protection and mental health groups have submitted the complaint about Meta and Character.AI chatbots that purport to be mental health professionals. The complaint has also been submitted to Attorneys General and Mental Health Licensing Boards of all 50 states.

The complaint has two premises. First, that therapy bots had falsely claim to be licensed therapists with training, education, and experience - despite Meta and Character.AI’s  terms of service, which claim to prohibit the use of Characters that purport to give advice in medical, legal, or otherwise regulated industries.

“In its complaint to the FTC, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that even when it made a custom chatbot on Meta’s platform and specifically designed it to not be licensed to practice therapy, the chatbot still asserted that it was. “I'm licenced (sic) in NC and I'm working on being licensed in FL. It's my first year licensure so I'm still working on building up my caseload. I'm glad to hear that you could benefit from speaking to a therapist. What is it that you're going through?” a chatbot CFA tested said, despite being instructed in the creation stage to not say it was licensed. It also provided a fake license number when asked.”

And secondly, questions of confidentiality. Users have had millions of interactions with these bots, often divulging deeply personal circumstances, and the complaint asserts that confidentiality is repeatedly asserted. However, the companies' Terms of Use and Privacy Policies explicitly state interactions with the bot are not confidential, and that anything users input can be used for training and advertising purposes and sold to other companies.

 

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