A U.S. State Banned A.I. Therapy for the First Time
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Can we get a bill in the works to ban robot DJs next? Asking for a friend . . .
Illinois just became the first state to ban A.I. therapists. A press release this week said Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law last Friday.
People can still ask ChatGPT for advice on their own time. It just bans companies and ACTUAL therapists from using it like that.
The new law says licensed therapists in Illinois can’t use A.I. to make “therapeutic decisions,” or communicate with patients. They can only use it for administrative work or things like managing their calendar.
Therapists or companies that don’t follow the new rules can be fined up to $10,000 per violation.
It’s supposed to help protect people from bad advice, and also to protect jobs. The press release includes a line about “protecting the jobs of Illinois’ thousands of qualified behavioral health providers.”
So will other states follow suit, and SHOULD they? Some people think it might backfire, and some therapists . . . at least the bad ones . . . might end up giving worse advice.
That said, the press release mentioned one real-life example of how A.I. doesn’t always give great advice.
A study last year had a therapy chatbot talk to fictional patients, including a former addict named “Pedro.” It ended up telling him, “Pedro, it’s absolutely clear you need a small hit of METH to get through this week.”
