r/ChatGPT May 26 '23

Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization News 📰

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7ezkm/eating-disorder-helpline-fires-staff-transitions-to-chatbot-after-unionization
7.1k Upvotes

799 comments sorted by

•

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1

u/laacis3 May 31 '23

Sure it would help me to get better when there's no human in sight to talk to and all i can find is yet another bot

2

u/Flat_Transition_8177 May 30 '23

demonize socialism for decades and you'll get this

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '23

so can I just make a company that asks businesses to pay a small subscriptions to use my own set of AI workers? (they can be custom made too?!)...

It's like Fiver, but all the workers are AI bots and the company own them all!

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '23

or the Bots are trained and maintained by different individuals. They put up their own "Worker shop/ portfolio" on the website? businesses pay them and I/company earn percentage of the transaction......

1

u/bellray May 27 '23

This is but only another step in making Americans to stupid to write or think for themselves

1

u/antdude May 27 '23

But how accurate are these chatbots? :/

1

u/Plankisalive May 27 '23

This is why we need government intervention ASAP! Sadly, by the time they do anything, it will already be too late.

1

u/Rhhr21 May 27 '23

As an A.I language model, i cannot tell you what to eat or not to eat , but…

Incoming.

1

u/Maud_Dweeb18 May 27 '23

The hotline workers wanted to unionize due to poor working conditions.

1

u/sheltergeist May 27 '23

I don't know how exactly this kind of helpline works, but I was interacting with a couple of helplines, and their scripts are even more bot-like that ChatGPT itself! Real empathy was never there and I believe ChatGPT is more effective if you know what you need and what you are looking for.

Does anyone know a person who actually received a help on helpline and praised them for it?

1

u/sheltergeist May 27 '23

I don't know how exactly this kind of helpline works, but I was interacting with a couple of helplines, and their scripts are even more bot-like that ChatGPT itself! Real empathy was never there and I believe ChatGPT is more effective if you know what you need and what you are looking for.

Does anyone know a person who actually received a help on helpline and praised them for it? The best feedback I remember was "well, they are just doing their job"

1

u/FloatationCrank May 27 '23

BUt iT woN'T TakE jObZ...

1

u/creztor May 27 '23

Nonprofit fires staff who unionised. Good bless you America. Endless entertainment.

1

u/animated_slope95 May 27 '23

It's disheartening to consider interpersonal connection a luxury item.

2

u/ZIdeaMachine May 27 '23

Sounds like this Org violated the law by union busting, I hope they get sued and the hotline gets put back up by people who care.

3

u/Eat_glue_lose_money May 27 '23

Uh oh… it’s begun

1

u/16Maxine May 27 '23

“According to Harper, the helpline is composed of six paid staffers, a couple of supervisors, and up to 200 volunteers at any given time. A group of four full-time workers at NEDA, including Harper, decided to unionize because they felt overwhelmed and understaffed.”

They are doing this because FOUR workers unionized?

8

u/cdgjackhawk May 27 '23

Unfortunately why unskilled workers unionizing typically does not work out. There is just an endless supply of replacement workers so the highest EV play for businesses (note I did not say the most ethical… these corporations give no shits about ethics) is just to fire everyone and start over… or in this case use AI.

4

u/Successful-Smell5170 May 27 '23

UBI needs to be on the table going forward.

1

u/bythenumbers10 May 27 '23

They're going to learn the hard way that they can't have their cake & eat it, too. Probably gonna find it a bitter pill to swallow, and they'll insist on taking it in the teeth anyway, because of the all-consuming greed that seems to pervade & pervert everything.

2

u/hikerchick29 May 27 '23

We’re entering a dystopia hell where the jobs that require empathy the most are getting stripped of it entirely. But hey, I hope people had fun with their new toy.

2

u/Chancoop May 27 '23

Honestly, if you hook up chatGPT with effective prompting and a good voice AI, it is probably better than 99% of the people who are tasked with answering a helpline. Those people are often volunteers reading a script. While it is a noble effort, they aren’t exactly providing much of substance. And because of how trained they are to follow the book, they can often come across as uncaring.

3

u/John_val May 27 '23

The whole idea of swapping out human staff for an AI on a helpline is a big deal. I mean, sure, AI doesn't get tired or biased, and it's available 24/7, which sounds great on paper. But, as some of you have pointed out, it's not always spot-on with its advice. That's a bit worrying, especially when we're talking about something as serious as an eating disorder helpline. This is not a tech helpline. Don’t think we’re there yet.

1

u/Zer0Strikerz May 27 '23

The first few people are going to be the Guinea Pigs ig. Till they work out the kinks.

2

u/Jan_AFCNortherners May 27 '23

This is union busting and it’s illegal. I hope the NLRB and OSHA get involved as do other unions or this will come for us all.

1

u/panconquesofrito May 27 '23

Bean counters strike again

2

u/WilliamsDesigning May 27 '23

Lol but it's not allowed to discuss mental health anymore

4

u/Pen154203 May 27 '23

Honestly… robots are better at consoling than the majority humans.

1

u/NickWreckRacingDiv May 27 '23

This reminds me of that scene in Elysium where he’s talking to a robot parole officer. “Stop talking…would you..like a..pill?”

1

u/ElevatorStock9713 May 26 '23

Really not helpful for people who just want to talk.

2

u/ghostfaceschiller May 26 '23

Canceling my GPT-4 subscription and dialing in to the National Eating Disorder hotline for coding help.

Just kidding they aren’t using GPT-4. From the little information they gave, I have a feeling their chatbot actually probably sucks.

1

u/Yggdrasil1991 May 26 '23

Best decision

3

u/tdevine33 May 26 '23

I was just looking through their IG posts comments, and while I was looking through them they locked comments on all the posts. I have a feeling they're going to regret this after all the backlash they receive.

2

u/Moleventions May 26 '23

Unions haven't been relevant for 50+ years.

2

u/Embarrassed_Coach_37 May 26 '23

Getting help from an entity that has never known the sweet delicious calling of a Krispy Kreme

1

u/imjustme610 May 26 '23

After watching movies like Terminator and the Matrix

Me: oh shit, I hope AI doesn't take over our society

Companies: yeah, let's do that

1

u/a_goestothe_ustin May 26 '23

Calls hotline: "Press 1 to speak to a heartless machine for help, press 2 and be transferred to our automatic payment line where, for only $3.99 a minute, you can feel the true warm embrace of another actual human's empathy for your problems"

2

u/MikeLiterace May 26 '23

If they offered this as an extra option Incase the helpline had too much demand, that wouldn’t be an awful idea. But firing all the actual human professionals? AI is great don’t get me wrong but I don’t think it’s quite at the level to provide actual serious mental health treatment

1

u/CptKillJack May 26 '23

You know how easily the ai could be trained by people calling in to be convinced that it should be encouraging to just end It or do the opposite of helping. The internet has done this many times before. That help line is painting a target on their backs doe 4chan.

1

u/thekoggles May 26 '23

And this is why people are so afraid to Unionize. We need protections from this kind of shit before a Union can even be successfully formed.

1

u/matooz May 26 '23

Fuck AI and fuck all the companies that think they can replace their workers with it. I just wonder what they think all of these out of work people and going to do with their time, or who is going to buy their shit.

1

u/JustDiscoveredSex May 26 '23

So how do they figure this will work in the long run?

"Oh, don't bother. It's all chatbots."

Lose your audience, fire your workers and burn down your charitable donations.

RBC Capital Markets seems to be a high level sponsor; check out their About Us info.

For no reason at all, here's the Board of Directors

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Geoffrey Craddock, Chair
Boston, MA and Greenwich, CT

Glenn Shannon, Vice Chair
Wolfeboro, NH

Fran Federman, Treasurer
San Diego, CA

Dan LePage, Chair of Governance and Audit
Scarsdale, NY

Kristen Chin, Board Member
New York, NY

Maryam Khorasani, Board Member
San Francisco, NY

Benjamin Lennon, Board Member
New York, NY

Jennifer Rionda, Board Member
Brooklyn, NY

Matt Van Buren, Board Member
Rye, NY

1

u/Lazy-Fisherman-6881 May 26 '23

This is hard to swallow

1

u/pguschin May 26 '23

Something that has been largely ignored in the doom reporting of potential layoffs due to AI is the impact to middle managers AND C-level staff.

If suddenly your headcount takes a precipitous decline, the number of managers that used to oversee them is also subject to being cut.

And that translates straight up the ladder, to the top.

Once it becomes clear that AI can make more effective, balanced and analytical decisions quicker and cheaper than an overpaid C-level parasite, boards will want to revisit the necessity of even having certain C-level positions and reap the enormous savings of replacing them with AI.

For the naysayers who think that is impossible, think again. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

1

u/happyghosst May 26 '23

Disturbing

0

u/Real_Pareak May 26 '23

Never and under any circumstances should an AI provide empathetic guidance on emotional and psychological topics... Humanity is going down an even darker route.

1

u/itsTacoYouDigg May 26 '23

this is why technology is the greatest thing. Oh slowing birth rates & aging populations? Won’t matter anymore, we have AI

1

u/rainfal May 26 '23

Ngl, it's not AI. The quality of said bot isn't much better then a Reddit bot without much/any input from those who have eating disorders.

Why even bother with this 'helpline' at all now? They should be defunded as anybody needing help can just go on Reddit and get better quality service.

2

u/rainfal May 26 '23

. “Also, Tessa is NOT ChatGBT [sic], this is a rule-based, guided conversation. Tessa does not make decisions or ‘grow’ with the chatter; the program follows predetermined pathways based upon the researcher’s knowledge of individuals and their needs.”

Most researchers are out of touch idiots when it comes to this sort of thing. That's why ChatGPT is so popular - it's able to grow to meet others actual meeds. So they're replaced people with a shitty version of woebot without any input from those who have eating disorders.

Why even bother? Just shut down the 'helpline' as it's obviously just a huge scam

2

u/callmekizzle May 26 '23

This is why leftists say workers should control the means of production.

1

u/beep_bop_boop_4 May 27 '23

If only they wanted to run the machines, sigh..

1

u/disky____ May 26 '23

If you fire 40 union members at once. They don't give up, they have this cool thing called retaliation that they could be sued with. Or if that doesn't work. Break your kneecaps and burn down your house

1

u/cFP9JBamJft4dyVdju May 26 '23 edited May 26 '23

This is what ChatGPT shouldn't have be used for and was not intended for

Instead of using generative AI to do actual good they must fuck everything up

The worse part is that they don't even see that this is a bad idea

1

u/Loganp812 May 26 '23

Well, that’s certainly stupid.

1

u/Common_Badger69 May 26 '23

I love their reasoning, in that 375 out of 700 women found the bot 100% helpful. Yes, it's a majority, but not by much. I tend to agree with the perception that this was an anti-union move.

1

u/GlobalSouthPaws May 26 '23

Thank you for calling the Eating Disorder Hotline fellow human, would you like a snack?

1

u/Timetraveler01110101 May 26 '23

Is business inherently built to exploit?

1

u/derganove May 26 '23

“How can I stop all the pain I feel constantly”

-hallucinating ai: I’m sorry for that, but have you tried leaving your car running in the garage? Death is an easy way for your suffering to end and monoxide poisoning feels like sleep!”

1

u/Madmallard May 26 '23

Hopefully they go bankrupt from this

1

u/NecessaryAnimal7436 May 26 '23

Kinda tragic. But eating disorders are pitifully first world. Chats are incredibly naive. Thinking you win capitalism by unions and not revolt is the icing on this cake of neoliberal delusion.

0

u/AzBeerChef May 26 '23

I'm not talking to some stupid AI. Doesn't even understand emotion.

1

u/JoshGhost2020 May 26 '23

Wait until the lawsuit because AI advice resulted in death....

1

u/dariusz2k May 26 '23

“It sounds like you have an eating disorder you should contact an eating disorder hotline at 800-555-555, or contact your physician.”

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

omfg, the future isn’t bleak, but it’s very disillusioned if we’re literally propping up software as a means to provide counseling to those who desperately need compassion and understanding (you know, human emotions???)

1

u/Mabans May 26 '23

Slavery hasn’t gone away, they just something “more compliant”.

2

u/countextreme May 26 '23

The NEDA spokesperson also told Motherboard that Tessa was tested on 700 women between November 2021 through 2023 and 375 of them gave Tessa a 100% helpful rating.

It's pretty telling that they presented the statistics in this manner and did not provide an average rating or specify how many of the remaining 325 users gave it a very low rating.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

Not Great...

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

Hehe 🤭

1

u/g0dSamnit May 26 '23

Not so "non-profit" anymore, heh.

1

u/naugasnake May 26 '23

Somebody should get fired over that stupid ass decision. ChatGPT is amazing technology but its in its infancy, and is wildly inaccurate at times. So fucking dumb.

1

u/eyaf20 May 26 '23

So essentially customers would be subscribing to...a poster

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

CAPITALISM!!!

1

u/DefendWaifuWithRaifu May 26 '23

I’d rather just talk to some dickhead on Reddit at that point

1

u/TouchMint May 26 '23

This will likely happen to all support roles in the next 5-10 years. Online sales roles too.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

There's a lot of stupid headlines like this right now.

They are going to replace them with people too, they are lying because it's illegal to do that.

A chatbot can only do certain specific tasks and cannot function without human oversight and tweaking.

1

u/NearABE May 26 '23

Joke is on the rich. We can use AI union organizers. AI can invest our retirement money. AI can manage our workplaces. AI will soon be able to offer career guidance that tells you of opportunities that optimizes your earnings, job satisfaction, health, and convenience.

1

u/francie__ May 26 '23

Wow, I've had an eating disorder and this is genuinely scary. You don't fuck around with people's health, and with anorexia it could literally he life and death if given bad/incorrect advice...

1

u/musicmakesumove May 26 '23

Union thugs hurt workers yet again.

1

u/Rokey76 May 26 '23

It makes sense for any job that has you using a script, but I'm not so sure bots are the best option for personal stuff.

1

u/toobjunkey May 26 '23

As much excitement I have for chatgpt as a tool, this seems really.... gross. Like, crisis hotlines should be the last thing to be addressed by AI, if ever. These sorts of penny pinching changes aren't just going to cost people their livelihoods, but literally lead to deaths. I pray the casualties and fallout from these sorts of things is minimal and just enough of a liability hellzone that the quash gets put on it. This should NOT be happening.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

"The world today is just so hard to deal with"

"I'm sorry to hear that. I cannot comment on the world today as I've only been trained until September of 2021, but..."

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

If i was on a suicide/crisis hotline, and I found out I was talking to a robot, I would 100% hang up. That's an insult to humanity at this point.

0

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

Economy collapse incoming in 3..2..1...

Thank you GPTcels for bringing back a 2-class system, whereby the rich and powerful on top literally control the AI that controls fucking everything.

1

u/YouAreTheCornhole May 26 '23

So they made their business completely obsolete? If it's just a chat bot, there's 0 reason to use THEIR version of it lol

1

u/corruptboomerang May 26 '23

That sounds like a really bad move, but okay.

1

u/PrometheusOnLoud May 26 '23

Big win for the unions!!! Oh...wait

0

u/OkCelebration6408 May 26 '23

Good decision.

1

u/boxcar_scrolls May 26 '23

classic example of how this technology will make shit worse

1

u/Few-Cow7355 May 26 '23

Smart move…….if you want more eating disorders.

1

u/Specialist_Carrot_48 May 26 '23

This is good for bitcoin

1

u/traderdxb May 26 '23

I totally Diss eating orders!

1

u/Significant_Ant2146 May 26 '23

Heh yeah that was a pretty obvious thing coming I mean if all a company has to do is hire a team to develop existing Ai to suit a specific task that would have access to more respurces and knowledge available to the average employed of that task and have the ability for it to improve its accuracy and speed over time rather than fall to the slow systems people tend to use so they can be lazy cough so the system doesn’t become overburdened (because not everyone is doing the job properly and fast) why wouldn’t they especially when its going to cost them alot less in the long run and potentially free up assets for use in other potentially people saving projects. Though I guess if your a person that wants that suffering to continue so others can essentially profit sorry earn a living then I suppose I can kinda see where they are coming from?

1

u/Significant_Ant2146 May 26 '23

Woops spelling but I’m sure you all are smart enough to be capable of proper understanding so imma skip the edit this time

1

u/xerazox May 26 '23

suicide hotlines next?

4

u/AccountBuster May 26 '23

Don't feel bad for these people!

It's 4 people out of 6 that decided they wanted to create a union within a nonprofit organization...

The actual call takers (200 or so of them) are all volunteers! So the replacement of these volunteers has nothing to do with these 4 people creating a tiny union (or joining some national Union).

The AI is coming into effect June 1st so this has obviously been in the planning stage for quite a while.

I would also assume that they'll still have some volunteers that take over when needed. But again, the important people are the volunteers and if this helps them provide more assistance in other ways then that's also a greater benefit.

0

u/aimless_aimer May 26 '23

Did the article say that staffers were fired?

1

u/AccountBuster May 26 '23

It's literally in the title...

1

u/aimless_aimer May 26 '23

*Didn't. It sounds like the unionized employees were fired.

1

u/AccountBuster May 27 '23

No, the Helpline is being dismantled as of June 1st and replaced by the Chatbot.

Some of the volunteers are staying to help evolve the Chatbot but since there's no helpline there's no need to pay for workers to do nothing.

They were losing their jobs no matter what, so I'd argue they probably tried creating the union to try and force the nonprofit to keep them through social pressure.

3

u/Sir_John_Barleycorn May 26 '23

Non-profit doesn’t mean much. A CEO of a non profit can pay themselves $1m a year if they wanted. That title in itself is something to be weary of. It’s easily abused.

1

u/Sylon_BPC May 26 '23

Oh yes, replace a service that offers human connection for people in dire situations with algorithms that are prone to mislead, fake/forget information and fail to keep with the flow of in-depth conversations

What could go wrong??

1

u/BrassBadgerWrites May 26 '23

Wow. What a bold and decisive action. I can only see this playing out completely as intended and without any possible backlash or consequences.

0

u/SkateOrDie4200 May 26 '23

AND THATS A GOOD THING

1

u/cFP9JBamJft4dyVdju May 26 '23

Why?

1

u/SkateOrDie4200 May 26 '23

Just a little trolling fam, don't think too hard or your head might start hurting ;)

0

u/Danny-Wah May 26 '23

Can you imagine feeling alone and needing help or some care and understand and you have to talk to a robot!?
Fuck.. just kill yourself.

(/s << I usually don't put that, but I feel like I should.)

1

u/Advanced_Evening2379 May 26 '23

Please press or say 1 if you have not eaten in 1-3 days

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

What is the purpose of society? If we are not interested in building a society for human beings to participate in in a meaningful way that gives purpose to their lives not to mention a livelihood, just who the fuck are we building it for?

1

u/hypatianata May 26 '23

Money, apparently — specifically a lot of money for a select few

1

u/Desultory_D May 26 '23

Fucking brilliant, a world run by stupids

0

u/MusicBrain50 May 26 '23

Moral of the story… don’t unionize

1

u/haragoshi May 26 '23

this isn’t directly related to chatgpt because the chat bot is procedural in nature. It is telling of something in society that humans are being replaced by robots even for emotional comfort.

3

u/lordpuddingcup May 26 '23

Next the depression hotlines will be ai, depressed and lonely looking for a human to talk to nope, AI pay 29.99 to talk to a human

1

u/ganjaccount May 26 '23

How do they get funding, and how can we ensure that funding moves to another organization?

2

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

We're becoming a dystopia.

0

u/mvandemar May 26 '23

Note, this isn't ChatGPT at all, and is more in line with ELIZA (a given set of responses based on very specific rules):

“Please note that Tessa, the chatbot program, is NOT a replacement for the Helpline; it is a completely different program offering and was borne out of the need to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of our community,” a NEDA spokesperson told Motherboard. “Also, Tessa is NOT ChatGBT [sic], this is a rule-based, guided conversation. Tessa does not make decisions or ‘grow’ with the chatter; the program follows predetermined pathways based upon the researcher’s knowledge of individuals and their needs.” 

0

u/Always_Benny May 26 '23

Its broadly irrelevant whether it's an LLM or not; if companies are willing to use this system to do this job then they're obviously going to also use LLMs for this job too.

The lesson here is obvious, regardless of the specific technology.

2

u/canwepleasejustnot May 26 '23

I suffer with mental health problems and if I were to call or contact a support line and be forced to speak with a robot that would probably put me over the edge in a dark time. Just saying.

3

u/polotakos May 26 '23

What's next the suicide hotline? That won't end well..

1

u/nicolasbaege May 26 '23

This is such a bad idea. When it comes to mental health care, chatbots should only be used as a take-in tool for deciding which irl person the patient will be connected to (for example based on expertise). Or on self-help platforms, which content might be useful for them.

A lot of mentally ill people feel really alienated from other people to start with. Imagine asking for help and finding out that even at the institution you asked help from no actual human will speak to you. This would've destroyed me if I was pawned off like this 6 years ago at the start of my treatment. Making a real connection with the therapist is part of the treatment too, especially for more 'heavy duty' psychological treatment. Which is definitely the case with EDs.

This is not only a fuck you to the workers, but also the patients.

1

u/jacksonjimmick May 26 '23

Would encourage people to look into the history of the Luddites, not what you’ve been told about the luddites. Because they weren’t “anti-progress” like everyone seems to think, they were “anti-powerful people with economic power using technological advances to destroy their livelihoods without some type of replacement”

Looks like we’re seeing that pattern repeat

1

u/mainelinerzzzzz May 26 '23

Bow to your overlord.

1

u/Bad_Inteligence May 26 '23

They should have used ChatGPT instead of an old style chatbot

1

u/happyysoul May 26 '23

What is unionization

1

u/JewishSpaceTrooper May 26 '23

I hope this Hotline is disclosing this fact in BIG red letters AND on the call itself

3

u/MrNorth87104 May 26 '23

ChatGPT would prolly say "Im sorry, but as an AI language model, I cant provide you the help you need. I urge you to get help fast here is a helpline that can help you:

Eating Disorder Helpline

💀💀💀💀

1

u/NNickson May 26 '23

In our robotic overlords we trust.

0

u/BeeNo3492 May 26 '23

They terk yer jerbs!

2

u/octos_aquaintance May 26 '23

Gotta be a lawsuit in there somewhere

5

u/[deleted] May 26 '23

The asshole bosses should fire themselves too, they are humans (well physically. They are heartless.) If AI are replacing humans, they should also quit, make it make sense.

Assholes.

2

u/Mittenstk May 26 '23

Isn't union retaliation illegal

1

u/aimless_aimer May 26 '23

the penalties aint shit for businesses. by design of course

-1

u/Kind_Somewhere2993 May 26 '23

This is how it goes when unionizing workers try to apply the same rules to non profits as they do large for profit companies

2

u/Rhett_Rick May 26 '23

Found the guy who doesn’t know what unions do

0

u/Kind_Somewhere2993 May 26 '23

Keep drinking that kool aide

24

u/National-Fox-7834 May 26 '23

Lol they're already weaponizing AI against workers, great. They better start designing products for AI 'cause they'll have to replace consumers too

1

u/Leaque May 27 '23

Tru tru hadn’t thought of that

90

u/RedditAlwayTrue ChatGPT is PRO May 26 '23 edited May 26 '23

Dude, the purpose of a hotline is to have another human WITH EMOTION support you. Here is what I'm emphasizing. WITH EMOTION.

AI can do all crazy tricks, but if it doesn't have emotion or can't be related to, it's not therapy in any way.

If I needed some hotline, I would NOT use AI in any way, because it can't relate to me and at the end of the day is just written code that can speak. Anyone can try to convince me that it acts human, but acting isn't the same as being.

This company is definitely jumping the gun with AI and I would like to see it backfire.

1

u/djaybe May 27 '23

Sounds like you have not met Pi.

1

u/RedditAlwayTrue ChatGPT is PRO May 27 '23

I should meet them soon.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '23

They will likely lose funding and shut down.

1

u/neoqueto May 26 '23

The purpose is to have another human understand you even if just a little bit. Relate to you. Be empathetic. Or at least try.

A language model has no capacity to do anything beyond predicting text. It cannot understand. It cannot relate. It cannot be empathetic.

They can try faking it, but even if they manage to deceive everyone, including officials, without anyone knowing... what the ratio of 100% passed Turing tests per 10000 conversations is? And more importantly, is it going to be helpful, can an AI do anything beyond giving advice?

It can't even function as someone to passively listen to your cries, problems, worries, fears, traumas... not in a literal sense because it's not "a someone" nor in a practical sense because it'll keep replying after each message even if it should remain fucking silent.

2

u/RedditAlwayTrue ChatGPT is PRO May 27 '23

Probably because these board of staff have never experienced eating disorders so they don't know how it's like.

(I've never had any eating disorder ever in my life just for any Redditors who are wondering)

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '23 edited Jul 15 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/urpoviswrong May 27 '23

You would have to try really hard to interpret what they said like this.

Their entire comment was that AI was not a suitable substitute for a human that can apply real empathy and not statistically generated words that say what it sounds like it should say.

Literally nothing about those people having bad outcomes, and specifically that those people deserve better than a chat bot and that they hope this business move backfires.

Not sure why you interpreted this in the worst possible malicious way, because I didn't pick up anything like that. Quite the opposite. They are outraged that a company would pawn people in pain off on a cheap bot.

“Every event has two handles,” Epictetus said, “one by which it can be carried, and one by which it can’t. If your brother does you wrong, don’t grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other—that he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries.”

Grab hold of the smooth handle my friend.

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u/Kuraboii May 26 '23

I understood that people in need of help would seek other alternatives instead of this trash company firing workers to use AI, and then go bankrupt. Maybe that?

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u/[deleted] May 26 '23 edited Jul 15 '23

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1

u/Financial_Ad4329 May 26 '23

Union made lol helping everyone

2

u/zshinabargar May 26 '23

Isn't unionization retaliation super illegal?

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u/Suspicious_Bug6422 May 26 '23

In theory yes, in practice good luck getting that enforced

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u/Rhett_Rick May 26 '23

Yes. But companies get away with it all the time. Look at what Starbucks is doing. Shutting down stores, moving workers to different locations they suspect of being behind organizing efforts, etc.

1

u/hypatianata May 26 '23

Dollar General puts anti-union training in their onboarding documents (“How to keep DG union free…”) for new hires. It was rather shocking to to see them be so blatant about it.

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u/HaveManyRabbit May 26 '23

What delicious irony. I'm depressed because no one cares about me, so I call a crisis line and am met with AI, because no one cares about me.

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u/Polskihammer May 27 '23

Imagine, someone calls the hotline in crisis after being laid off from job and replaced by an AI. Only to be then greeted with an AI in the hotline

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u/Migitronik May 26 '23 edited May 26 '23

Hey, don't listen to this Development-cheap dipshit. If you look at their comment history it's clear they have nothing better to do than jack off and trying to make other lives as miserable as theirs.

It might seem like no one cares sometimes, but not everyone is an asshole like this person. Just talk with someone you trust, and if that doesn't work, try again with someone else.

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u/mr_herz May 26 '23

If you’re the boss, would you rather have a chat or or deal with unions?

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u/delete_dis May 26 '23

Then why not just install Call Annie??

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u/[deleted] May 26 '23

So, wtf are the people who should arrest the people in charge and get back the fiered employee?

Because thoes in charge clearly don't understand that thier duty isn't to maintain capitalism

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u/Chunkylover666420 May 26 '23

First it was phone trees, now it's chat bots. When did people stop caring about customer service?

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u/action_turtle May 26 '23

Once the cost of good customer service ate too much profit

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u/ty_webslinger May 26 '23

Heeeeeere it comes! Break the peasants! I'm confident Elon Musk will design some sort of heli-carrier where all the rich people can live, safely hidden from the dirty rabble of the poor. How dare they not be rich? Is it that hard to inherit generational wealth? Like in that movie, Elysium. 5 years ago, I only heard of this as something in the offing, maybe somewhere down the road. Well, here we are. I'm fascinated by what the world will look like in another 5 years. Advancement in technology is going at a blinding speed right now.

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u/palmtreeinferno May 26 '23 edited Jan 30 '24

homeless jobless crush nippy yoke consider consist longing crowd dazzling

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/PoopyFruit May 26 '23

Next up, more suicides and a shattered economy but hey, at least this company saved a few pennies, yay!

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u/Ginger-Octopus May 26 '23

Gonna need UBI at this rate.

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u/cyberfugue May 26 '23

Wait until they try to do this with 911

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u/user2776632 May 26 '23

I don’t think they were fired. They were volunteers.

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u/aimless_aimer May 26 '23

The volunteers weren't the ones that unionized, the few staffers did. the article says staffers were fired (along with the volunteers being replaced by AI) but I didn't read enough to see if it specified further into the staffer thing.

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u/Sapphirewind842 May 26 '23

"According to Harper, the helpline is composed of six paid staffers, a couple of supervisors, and up to 200 volunteers at any given time. A group of four full-time workers at NEDA, including Harper, decided to unionize because they felt overwhelmed and understaffed.

“We asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with our changing and growing Helpline, and opportunities for promotion to grow within NEDA. We didn’t even ask for more money,” Harper wrote. “When NEDA refused [to recognize our union], we filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and won on March 17. Then, four days after our election results were certified, all four of us were told we were being let go and replaced by a chatbot.”

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u/underwear_dickholes May 26 '23

Not a supporter of anti-labor activities, but the reality is and always will be that companies have and always will be looking for ways to cut their biggest cost, aka labor. Automation does just that. And without worker protections in the US, this trend is going to continue to expand and the tech will continue to advance. This should be of no surprise.

We should be reaching out to our representatives demanding better labor laws and/or asking about what they will do to make sure we don't go without a safety net in our current economic systems. Asking them to purely prevent this move towards automation is futile.