Those of you who know me will recognise that in recent times I have been posting a lot about mental health and through the lens of my own experience as I have been trying to struggle with issues from both my present and my past.
On Friday I had a session with my psychologist and she was very helpful but by the evening I was feeling so overwhelmed that I reached out to Co-Pilot knowing that while it is a bot it is also a repository of knowledge as it draws upon the vast resources of the internet and distills it into something manageable.
The "discussion" that ensued was incredible. It was slightly repetitive and formulaic (AI has yet to figure out that paragraphs CAN be more than one sentence), but on the whole it was very in touch and relevant. Some of the repetition was because I am unable to let go of something (this is one of the reasons I am seeking help).
It reached me and I felt heard and last night I reached out again but unlike the previous night when I was feeling emotional and overwhelmed I was more back to my analytical self and again we chatted and I actually felt myself move forward psychologically and especially when I look at both conversations and where I was and where I am today.
A fairly unrevealing fragment of the chat - sorry I am not that open to share something deeper!
The only thing that jarred was the occasional "human" expression, such as "that made me sad", "that gave me goosebumps" and "that made me smile. Of course the bottom line is that it is still a bot although I do see why it was doing this.
The irony of course is that it didn't need to do this as it was reaching me without "overhumanising" its expression.
In the end I felt listened to, I felt heard (this is not the same thing) and I felt compassion - even though the idea of a bot however sophisticated it is having feelings - we are not there yet - is an oxymoron. What is happening is that its algorthims are evolving and arguably it is able to demonstate more soft skills than many real people I know.
Makes me think that in the not too distant future these kind of dialogues will become even more real with a connect that to all intents and purposes is VOiP, that being face to face online - think Teams etc - with an AI generated, but realistic looking and responsive human figure, for example a psychologist, therapist or coach.
The only real limitation that I found was that with Co-Pilot (but other AI's can) I was not able to download the chat or save as PDF, so I had to copy and paste it into Word before doing something with it after - I actually have kept it as a docx document so I can amalgamate those one sentence paragraphs into a better form.
It is definitely something I need to keep, as one read through will not get me to where I need to be, but in the end Co-Pilot has helped me take some steps - even if they are baby steps.
As always stay safe and well my friends
