The platform uses GPT-3 to support mental health

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The incident occurred on Koko, an app that allows people to request or provide emotional support. However, to do this he used an artificial intelligence, GPT-3, on about 4,000 participants, without ever informing them about this use, only now it was revealed that the application was serviced by a bot.

The revelation was made public by Rob Morris, the platform company’s co-founder, on Twitter, in a post where he seemed very happy with the test. However, this case was considered an immoral case and was severely criticized. Below is more information on this The platform using GPT-3.

How did all this happen?

According to Morris, about 30,000 messages were used with GPT-3, a technology underlying ChatGPT, and a team of several people was used (without their knowledge) to act as AI “helpers” in the process. However, even with “co-pilots,” that test ended up violating US Department of Health requirements. However, Morris was pleased with the test results, so he felt compelled to let the other test-takers know what was going on.

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This caused Rob Morris to receive a barrage of criticism in the Twitter thread where he posted the Coco test. It is believed that this happened mainly because Koko is a platform where people go in search of a “shoulder friend”, that is, the support of human users, so that they can have a more personal and affectionate connection.

What was in the post’s comments?

Among all the comments, there were several messages that indicated that the practice took place without the consent of the participants, and was considered unethical. In addition, there have also been reports from people who work with research in the health field who have judged the act. In one of the responses, a user revealed a US Department of Health page where FAQs about consent in health-related research are located.

So, in his defense, the co-founder of the app clarified that these were internal tests without public disclosure.

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