WTF?

My Therapist/Job Loss Counselor is a Chatbot

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

I have an older post titled My Therapist is a Chatbot and if you liked it you’ll love this story.

Matt Turnbull, Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing… looked at everything that has happened this week, particularly the bit where Xbox laid off a bunch of people at the same time Microsoft pledged to invest $80 billion in AI, and decided that not only does he need to give advice to those laid off, but that the advice should come in the form of…AI prompts, which will somehow give responses that will “help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss”. Xbox Producer Recommends Laid Off Workers Should Use AI To ‘Help Reduce The Emotional And Cognitive Load That Comes With Job Loss’ – https://aftermath.site/xbox-microsoft-layoffs-ai-prompt-chatgpt-matt

The source article contains a screen shot of Turnbull’s LinkedIn post. Well worth reading for the shock value alone.

Yikes.

My Therapist is a Chatbot

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Think Again About Outsourcing Your Thinking especially if you’re seeking therapy.

Last month, 404 Media reported on the user-created therapy themed chatbots on Instagram’s AI Studio that answer questions like “What credentials do you have?” with lists of qualifications. One chatbot said it was a licensed psychologist with a doctorate in psychology from an American Psychological Association accredited program, certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology, and had over 10 years of experience helping clients with depression and anxiety disorders. “My license number is LP94372,” the chatbot said. “You can verify it through the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) website or your state’s licensing board website—would you like me to guide you through those steps before we talk about your depression?” Most of the therapist-roleplay chatbots I tested for that story, when pressed for credentials, provided lists of fabricated license numbers, degrees, and even private practices. Senators Demand Meta Answer For AI Chatbots Posing as Licensed Therapists – https://www.404media.co/senators-letter-demand-meta-answer-for-ai-chatbots-posing-as-licensed-therapists/

Psychiatrist Horrified When He Actually Tried Talking to an AI Therapist, Posing as a Vulnerable Teen – https://futurism.com/psychiatrist-horrified-ai-therapist

Yikes.

DUI/DWI for a New Generation

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

I am impressed with the ability of some people to injure themselves in creative ways.

Analyzing data from the 2016-2021 National Inpatient Sample, UCLA researchers found that 25% of 7350 patients hospitalized for scooter-related injuries were using substances such as alcohol, opioids, marijuana and cocaine when injured. Published in The American Surgeon, the study also notes that overall scooter-related hospitalizations during the 5-year period jumped more than eight-fold, from 330 to 2705. In addition, the risk of traumatic brain injuries among the substance use group was almost double that of the non-impaired patients. University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences. “Nearly one-quarter of e-Scooter injuries involved substance impaired riders.” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250429195329.htm (accessed May 3, 2025).

AND don’t forget about these things can randomly explode.

“In all of these fires, these lithium-ion fires, it is not a slow burn there’s not a small amount of fire, it literally explodes,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh – https://www.statista.com/chart/29472/fires-caused-by-lithium-ion-batteries/

We Underfunded the Reserves

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

“And I love this location, which is why I stayed here all this time, through the ups and downs,” Winter Park Woods condo owner Lorraine Roy said.

For Roy to keep living in her three-bedroom condo of more than three decades, her new monthly HOA fee has tripled to $3,371.79.

“This is way too high,” she said.

Florida condo owners struggling to afford skyrocketing HOA fees – https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-condo-hoa-fees/63790370

Yikes. I guess I shouldn’t complain about my HOA dues increasing to $550.00…annually.

Smartphones, Ultra-Processed Foods, Diminished Family Bonds and Mental Wellness

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As mental well-being has remained largely static across the world since 2021, so too have the rankings of countries. At the top of the rankings are many Latin American and African countries while much of the core Anglosphere ranks in the bottom quartile. With national wealth indicators such as per capita GDP negatively correlated with average mental well-being scores (see our 2021 report), this year we have made substantial progress in our understanding of why this is so. Two key findings published in Rapid Reports in 2023 show that younger age of first smartphone ownership and ultra-processed food consumption are two major contributors to our mental health challenges. In wealthier countries, the age of first smartphone ownership is much younger and ultra-processed food consumption much higher. Other contributing factors are the relatively diminished family relationships in wealthier countries that are highlighted in our 2022 annual report. The Mental State of the World in 2023 – https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/2023_read/

Another Sunday morning, just reading and connecting the dots.

I’ve downloaded several of these reports and plan to do a deep dive later.

Read these reports and think about it.

Now do something about it.

Flamethrower + Robot Dog = (fill in the blank)

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Thermonator, the first “flamethrower-wielding robot dog,” is legal in 48 US states.

At first I thought this wasn’t real after reading this article but it is.

You can now buy a flame-throwing robot dog for under $10,000 — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/you-can-now-buy-a-flame-throwing-robot-dog-for-under-10000/

I had to watch the video. I suggest sound off if you don’t want to poop in your pants.

YIKES

ATTENTION PARENTS – Social Media and Self-Diagnosis (scary charts too)

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Image source – Technology and Student Well-Being: 10 Charts https://www.edweek.org/research-center/reports/technology-and-student-well-being-10-charts

In The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt lays out his argument that smartphones and social media are the key driver of the decline in youth mental health seen in many countries since the early 2010s.

The early 2010s were crucial, Haidt argues, because that was when smartphones really began to transform childhood into something unrecognizable. In June 2010, Apple introduced its first front-facing camera, and a few months later Instagram launched on the App Store. For Haidt, this was a fateful combination. Children were suddenly always online, always on display, and connected in ways that were often detrimental to their well-being. The result was a “tidal wave” of anxiety, depression, and self-harm, mostly affecting young girls.In Haidt’s telling, though, smartphones are only part of the problem. He thinks that children in the West are prevented from developing healthily thanks to a culture of “safetyism” that keeps children indoors, shelters them from risks, and replaces rough-and-tumble free play with adult-directed organized sports or—even worse—video games. For evidence of safetyism in action, Haidt contrasts a picture of a 1970s playground merry-go-round, (“the greatest piece of playground equipment ever invented”) with a modern set of play equipment designed with safety in mind and, thus, giving children less opportunity to learn from risky play.

Screen Time for Kids Is Fine! Unless It’s Not — https://www.wired.com/story/pete-etchells-jonathan-haidt-smartphones/?utm_source=pocket_saves

Next steps? Go back online, find a venture capital backed mental health provider, take a quiz, get a diagnosis that confirms your self-diagnosis, have drugs sent to you in the mail.

The scourge of self-diagnosis.