AI chatbot will replace human helpline workers at National Eating Disorder Association

Helpline workers for the National Eating Disorder Association say they are being replaced by AI

The National Eating Disorders Association is shutting down its telephone helpline and will be offering an AI chatbot.

AI chatbot will replace human helpline workers at National Eating Disorder Association

NEDA officials say the decision had nothing to do with a recent unionization.

Eating Disorder Helpline to Replace Human Staff With AI Chatbot

The National Eating Disorder Association has disbanded its long-running, telephone helpline. NEDA has fired the small group of human staff that coordinated and ran the helpline, effective June 1. In lieu, the nonprofit plans to offer people seeking help access to an AI-powered chatbot named “Tessa” next month, as …Read more...

Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization

Executives at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) decided to replace hotline workers with an AI chatbot named Tessa four days after the workers unionized.  NEDA, the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eating disorders, has had a helpline for the last twenty years that provided support to hundreds of thousands of people via chat, phone call, and text. “NEDA claims this was a long-anticipated change and that AI can better ser…

Chatbot to Replace Human Staffers at National Eating Disorders Association Helpline

Volunteers say the move to a chatbot named Tessa, which came after staffers voted to unionize, will harm callers to the National Eating Disorders Association helpline

Can a chatbot help people with eating disorders as well as another human?

The National Eating Disorders Association is replacing hundreds of volunteers and staff who work its phone helpline with a chatbot — and not because the bot is better.