Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of The Excert.

The proliferation of chatbots has people using them in a myriad of ways.

Some see them as friends and confidants, as meta-CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested.

And in certain cases, even as therapists, and actual therapists are expressing concern.

Therapy is a licensed profession for many good reasons.

Notably, some chatbots have wandered into dangerous territory,

allegedly suggesting that a user kill themselves and even telling them how they could do it.

The American Psychological Association has responded by asking the Federal Trade Commission

to start investigating chatbots that claim to be mental health professionals.

Still, with mental health, a rising issue, and loneliness and epidemic, could bots help

with the lack of supply, with proper oversight or warnings?

They'll write, Senior Director of Healthcare Innovation at the American Psychological Association

is here to unpack what's happening

for human therapists as they fight an onslaught of AI therapy impersonators.

Dale, thank you for joining me.

Thanks so much for having me.

Can you set the stage here?

Your organization's chief executive cited two court cases when he presented to a Federal Trade Commission panel

about the concerns of professional psychologists. What are the real-life harms he pointed to?

I think we see a future where you're going to have AI mental health chatbots that are rooted

in psychological science, have been rigorously tested or

co-created with experts for the purpose of addressing mental health needs. But that's not what's

...