Conducting a talking therapy

The comparison was a waiting list, not another therapist, so the trial shows that something worked, not that it matched a clinician. Therabot is a supervised research prototype that was never released, the research team read the conversations and was ready to step in, and the authors say plainly that no generative agent is ready to work unsupervised in mental health, where the range of dangerous situations is wide. The finding that unsettles people is a different one: participants rated their working alliance with the program at levels reported for human therapists. Holding the risk of a suicidal patient, and being a person who can be held to account for that risk, was not tested and could not be.