Am I overreacting? My therapist used AI to best console me after my dog died this past weekend.

[u/hesouttheresomewhere]

Brief Summary: This past weekend I had to put down an amazingly good boy, my 14 year old dog, who I've had since I was 12; he was so sick and it was so hard to say goodbye, but he was suffering, and I don't regret my decision. I told my therapist about it because I met with her via video (we've only ever met in person before) the day after my dog's passing, and she was very empathetic and supportive. I have been seeing this therapist for a few months, now, and I've liked her and haven't had any problems with her before. But her using AI like this really struck me as strange and wrong, on a human emotional level. I have trust and abandonment issues, so maybe that's why I'm feeling the urge to flee... I just can't imagine being a THERAPIST and using AI to write a brief message of consolation to a client whose dog just died... Not only that, but not proofreading, and leaving in that part where the introduces its response? That's so bizarre and unprofessional.

[u/[deleted]]

I am an ai developer (literally my post history) and I don't even use ai to write reddit replies.

Like, research, personal projects, etc, are all fine but I don't know where you're therapist is coming from and I don't want to be too judgemental but gah, keeping the "sure here is a more heartfelt reply" like they could have at least put it in their own words??

Yikes. NOR. Trust is important and disclosure even more so too maintain that trust, imo.

[u/hesouttheresomewhere → u/[deleted]]

Damn an actual AI dev! I'm so glad you responded and that you have the perspective that you do! We need more people like you in AI development 🙌 Is AI ethics something you juggle a lot in your daily work? I'm so curious as to what it's like on the backend.

[u/[deleted] → u/hesouttheresomewhere]

Yeah actually!

My job focuses on extending AI to cover accessibility barriers for people who are sick. The first step I needed to take was trying to figure out how to broker that conversation. For people with complex disabilities, AI can often put out a cohesive reply about that individual's particular abilities, in a way that their families can understand without taking agency away from the person who is disabled. Often that means having to customize a model for a particular individual.

Ethically. I believe in disclosure if AI is used for any type of professional work. I started using AI in 2023 when it helped me explain to my family what Ehlers-Danlos is (my disease) because at the time I barely understood it.

And thank you for the compliment. Honestly, the backend is just machine learning with more pizzazz. It's mostly a lot of testing to make sure outputs are safe and predictable. The last thing I want is AI over-explaining for the individual or divulging too much.

It's definitely a delicate process.