The National Eating Disorder Association will replace its helpline with an AI chatbot. The decision comes on the heels of the staff's decision to unionize after a slew of pandemic-era calls led to mass staff burnout. The creator of Tessa says the chatbot, which was specifically designed for NEDA, isn't as advanced as ChatGPT.

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Fortune

New York

United States

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

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

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Media Bias/Fact Check

Business Insider

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

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.

National Public Radio, Inc

Washington

District of Columbia

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

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

People

Meredith Corporation

Time Inc.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Chatbot to Replace Human Staffers at National Eating Disorders Association Helpline

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

Chatchaval Jiaravanon

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…

Vice

The Walt Disney Company

TPG Capital

Hearst Communications

Shane Smith (journalist)

Soros Fund Management

James Murdoch

Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization

Numerous users and experts in the field of eating disorders reported firsthand encounters with the bot's problematic responses

Business Today

India

Problematic AI chatbot ‘Tessa’ that gave harmful eating disorder advice to shut down

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...

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

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