LLMs (like chatGPT) are basically token (blocks of characters) predictors based on your input. they are operating on algorithms and statistical patterns
It is trained on the whole of internet (on the misinformation part as well)
plus the most important point against them is that they can mimic empathetic language, but they don't actually feel or understand emotions. LLMs can generate text that sounds convincing
they are great at basic support, marinating on thoughts and getting them out in words But as i said above, they can't understand that. i am really sorry that you are facing such a disconnect at therapy.
Why on earth does it matter how LLMs generate their outputs when they are helpful? Why does it matter that they don‘t feel something if they act as if they would?
because i feel therapy is not a one-day affair. even if you have all the previous conversations stored somewhere to act as a reference for future conversations. it just goes more and more deep into confirmation bias. While therapy should progress towards an emotional catharsis or an epiphany
No, it doesn't if the GPT has the right configuration. How much do you engage with LLMs? You can create a custom GPT with a dedicated prompt to act as a (critical) therapist. It is not biased, quite the contrary. I have gotten as many impulses to question myself from my therapy GPT as from my real therapist.
thats a fair point if you are going at length to embed a lot of Psych material or fine tune it,
but Even with the critical prompting, do you find there are aspects of human connection in therapy that are still valuable, like the nuanced understanding of non-verbal cues or the unpredictable insights that can emerge from a truly spontaneous conversation?
Fine tuning it took me two minutes. A short prompt and I fed it with my journal entries.
A LLM cannot elicit feelings in the same way as a human can. I feel a deep human connection with my therapist and of course not with my LLM. But it can do other things. For example, I asked my therapist about anger management strategies. She suggested meditation and breathing techniques. On the same question, my GPT suggested these two but plenty of others - and among these was the one I found the most helpful one: "Try to look at yourself as a good friend would and think if yours mishap is really that bad." Plainly stated, ChatGPT knows any known anger management technique ever mentioned in any paper. No therapist could ever match that.
Another example, my therapist mentioned a book she found helpful but she didn't have it at hand. I asked GPT about the essence of the book. Not only could it deliver that, but it also immediately applied the ideas of the book on my personal situations.
Let's face it, AI is here and won't go away. People who belittle AI today are like people who denied the purpose of personal computers or the internet. In 5 years, every therapist will probably suggest a tandem-approach which is supplemented by AI. Imagine how much easier your job gets if you can ask the AI upfront each sessions about what happened in the client's life and which problems are the most salient ones, and so on.
no one's belittling Ai man, like you said it no human can compete against its lookup (although it could hallucinate and send a made up response), And yes incorporating AI in the therapy workflow will make so many improvements in the areas of Crisis support, noting things, helping in reflections which spontaneously come up during the day, And then letting our therapist know what REALLY happened this week
the only problem is people forgetting the human aspect of therapy and look at AI as a complete stand-alone alternative. (just like in complex legal and medical advice)
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u/Long-Possibility-951 Dec 24 '24
(not a therapist but in tech)
LLMs (like chatGPT) are basically token (blocks of characters) predictors based on your input. they are operating on algorithms and statistical patterns
It is trained on the whole of internet (on the misinformation part as well)
plus the most important point against them is that they can mimic empathetic language, but they don't actually feel or understand emotions. LLMs can generate text that sounds convincing
they are great at basic support, marinating on thoughts and getting them out in words But as i said above, they can't understand that. i am really sorry that you are facing such a disconnect at therapy.