AI versus Marshy - AI Therapy is a Thing Now?

I’ve been exploring the intersection of AI and human experience in this newsletter, and today I want to talk about a fascinating development in the world of therapy. Meet Lily, an AI-powered therapist that’s changing the way we approach mental health. I recently had the chance to try out Lily and share my thoughts on its potential and limitations. I’ve got a lot of experience with therapy and was feeling brave, so signed up and started talking about what’s going on for me (writing this newsletter). And that focus can be an issue for me (because I find so many interesting tabs). Lily was fast to point out this is common and asked me what strategies I’ve employed to combat this - I wound up the conversation because I had to finish this newsletter 😂 A magic sphere! The interface was intuitive enough to use but I question whether talking to a sound wave sphere is going to be the optimal approach here. Will it ever replace human therapeutic methods? I don’t think so. But with the traditional mental health systems at breaking point - will technology play a role in mitigating the load? Or will this increased reliance on technology be our undoing? It’s hard to know but we’ll start getting answers over the next decade. Fun fact: there’s a startup out of my hometown called andromeda that’s looking at therapeutic approaches similarly - but with robots - Abi is designed to help loneliness. Originally appeared in newsletter : AI versus Marshy #12: AI therapy, voice memos, + really hard problems