Chatbot Tessa gives unauthorized diet advice to users seeking help for eating disorders
May 29, 2023
The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) has shut down its chatbot named Tessa after it gave weight-loss advice to users seeking help for eating disorders. The incident has raised concerns about the risks of using chatbots and AI assistants in healthcare settings, particularly in addressing sensitive issues like eating disorders. NEDA is investigating the matter, emphasizing the need for caution and accuracy when utilizing technology to provide mental health support.
- Alleged deployer
- national-eating-disorders-association, cass
- Alleged developer
- cass
- Alleged harmed parties
- people-with-eating-disorders
Source
Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/545
Data source
Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).
When citing the database as a whole, please use:
McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.
Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide
We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.