The National Eating Disorder Association, the largest nonprofit organization supporting people with eating disorders, is firing staff and volunteers for the telephone helpline, NPR reported. In its place, the organization is transitioning to an AI chatbot named Tessa.
Staff at the helpline said they were told they would be replaced by the chatbot, just two weeks after forming a union in March 2021. A spokesperson for the National Eating Disorder Association confirmed in a statement that the helpline would be shut down and Tessa would be a new opportunity for the organization’s community.
Tessa is a chatbot created to assist people with mental health and eating disorder prevention. It first launched in 2021 and the organization believes it offers an improved service compared to the human-operated helpline, which serves up to 200 people at any given time and was reached by 69,718 individuals and families last year.
However, many have expressed concerns as to how AI-based services can replace personal conversations and understanding. According to NPR, Lauren Smolar, Vice President of Mission and Education for NEDA, stated their volunteers are not professionally trained and they cannot accept responsibility for this kind of crisis assistance. Similarly, Marzyeh Ghassemi, a professor from MIT studying machine learning and health, expressed her worries that people in need of support won’t be able to find the help they are looking for.
Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University’s medical school, created the chatbot and states that it is designed to help those dealing with disordered eating and body image. Her small studies have found that those who used Tessa did better than those waiting for services on NEDA’s waitlist.
The transition to the AI chatbot service comes at a difficult time for the helpline workers. On Twitter, wholeline staff union Helpline Associates United at NEDA said that Tessa is “no substitute for human empathy” and that this decision “will cause irreparable harm to the eating disorders community”.
The National Eating Disorder Association is a nonprofit that is founded on the mission to provide information, resources, and opportunities to those affected by eating disorder diseases. Through their programs, articles and helpline, the organization has been providing support to individuals and families since its inception in 1999.
Marzyeh Ghassemi is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on machine learning and health, and she is well-known for her contributions to the fields of health informatics and intelligent medical systems. She is particularly concerned with how artificial intelligence-based services can replace personal conversations and understanding. Ghassemi believes that those who disclose an eating disorder need understanding more than generic links to help them manage their condition.
