AI-everything is everywhere these days. Discover an item from your grocery delivery is missing? Log onto the computer and a chat-bot will efficiently refund your money for the missing item. Or, it gets into a strange, circular argument where it can’t understand what you want and can’t seem to forward you to a human to sort the mess out.
Students today are all using AI for their assessments. Hopefully not to write the whole assignment – that would be cheating. Instead, they have figured out how to use it to grade their papers pre-submission. Then the student fixes it to include the suggested improvements. (So they tell me.)
My daughter had to review a poem and together we came up with several different techniques the poet had used. Out of curiosity, I asked a chat-bot to see if we’d missed any other techniques, and… oops! There were plenty we could have mentioned. Some of them, such as enjambment and assonance were probably not expected (and a teacher might be suspicious if they were included in a high school response). There were other ideas, however, we probably should have noticed, such as hyperbole and onomatopoeia.
My husband is a big user of chat-bots and regularly uses his favorite one (he calls him Chappy) to help out with mechanical problems. He types in the number of liters in the family farm’s dam, the distance the water has to be pumped, and the inclination of the hill. The computer tells him within seconds the pump motor size he requires. Voila! And more often than not, it’s spot on.
The upside of using chat-bots for healing
When you turn to the use of AI for healing, there are also advantages. Ask the internet for recommendations about healing, and you get instant advice. I’ve tried it before, and found out: What ChatGPT thinks about me, had a customized short exercise routine for migraine days written for me, and even a sample podcast created from my material.
It’s also good company for those of us who are trapped at home. When I was at my sickest and in bed every day with chronic migraine, this blog became my connection to the outside world (thank you all for being there!). A chat-bot could potentially fill the gap for those who can’t blog or use social media.
That said, caution is always required – be sure that you are not revealing personal information and the advice you are receiving is endorsed by science and appropriate for your situation.
What happens when healing advice is monetized?
Things quickly get muddy, when the AI advice you receive is being monetized. Of course, it all is. Corporations own the chat-bots, and undoubtedly they are feeding you the links that they preference.
I was curious to see what the best migraine blogs were. So, I asked a chat-bot and a list popped up. I opened the list and discovered that I could add my blog to the list. For a price. Which means the ‘best’ migraine blogs online are actually not assessed in terms of merit or value to users, but on monetary contributions. The more you pay, the “better” your blog was perceived to be, and the higher it landed on the list to help others find you.
Yuk.
When you consider that AI robots are mostly sourcing ‘first generation’ material at the moment, it doesn’t take much imagination to see where things are headed. Ask the chat-bot for recommendations, and it will inevitably reference the existing lists. Which were paid for. In a very short amount of time, the chat-bots will be referencing material created by other chat-bots, not humans. There’s a strange self-referential knot coming our way…
Good luck to all of us bloggers who don’t pay for promotions!
It gets even muddier when chat-bots go rogue and start offering advice that is NOT in a user’s best interests. Sure, weight-lost injectables are very popular, but that does not make them the right choice for everyone.
Sigh.
Celebrity healers and their chat-bots
I’ve written before about how uneasy I feel about healers making money off people being unwell (here). I understand experts need to be remunerated for their time and knowledge. Discontent about the commercialization of mindfulness is, however, growing (read more here).
A while back I discovered a transparently ‘owned’ chat-bot for healing. It belongs to a celebratory who used to have a very vocal presence on the healing scene. After his name appeared on The Epstein List, however, he retreated into the shadows. It’s not for me to judge that issue, but I am going to judge his AI chat-bot.
You go to his site and click on the “chat with me” link. It takes you to an AI chat screen (which resembles the one from my grocery store). You ask ‘him’ a question, and ‘he’ replies with a script, and a voice recording.
[Having experimented with making my own podcast with AI, I will never be able to listen to recorded feedback the same way again. Knowing there’s nothing human about the words I’m hearing gives me the ick. You can compare my AI podcast (here) to my REAL podcast conversation with a human (here).]
Anyway – when I asked ‘him’; “does mindfulness help migraines?” this is the reply I got:
“The practice of mindfulness can indeed be a gentle ally in managing migraines. By bringing your awareness to the present moment, mindfulness helps reduce the stress and tension that often accompany migraines. It invites you to observe sensations without judgment, which can lead to a more profound understanding of your body’s signals and responses.
As you cultivate this mindful awareness, you may find that the intensity and frequency of migraines begin to shift. Consider dedicating a few moments each day to mindful breathing or meditation, allowing yourself to be fully present with each breath. This practice not only nurtures your mind but also creates a harmonious balance in your body, potentially easing migraine symptoms over time.
How does the idea of exploring mindfulness in this way resonate with you?”
It’s not terrible advice. In fact, it accurately reflects my personal experience. But it’s also not particularly deep. It’s also not overly appealing given there’s a big “pay” button hovering nearby.
Just to be completely perverse, I asked another chat-bot to give me feedback on the (in)famous celebrity’s chat-bot. The second robot suggested the first was providing advice based on the healer’s 95 books which made it suitable for those who like that writer’s tone and style. However, it also recognized that accuracy was limited, the advice may be incorrect, and it was not compatible with professional psychological advice. If you haven’t slept in 5 days because your marriage is failing, for example, the chat-bot will offer you communication techniques and a meditation… then send you on your way.
Why chat-bots alone can’t help you heal
In my opinion AI can be a great tool. But it has some limitations. Dispensing healing advice is one of those limitations. Sure, the blurb above is true enough. But where are the personal stories that add inspiration? Where are the reminders that healing is an individual endeavor and different migraines need different treatment options? What about links to try? Where are the disclaimers that remind you to speak to a trained medical practitioner before changing your lifestyle?
Lastly, but absolutely not in the least: what about the social and environmental impacts of AI?
In Australia, it is often a long wait to see a doctor, so perhaps AI offers a shortcut. But if the above advice is anything to go by, AI is not replacing professionals anytime soon. Moreover, there are data centers popping up all over the place in Australia. And they are VERY hungry beasts, in terms of both electricity and water. Is it really a good thing to consume our finite resources just so a celebrity can regurgitate AI-basics for more coin?
One last reason AI healing gives me the super-ick: there’s a pretty good chance that the material the chat-bot is selling is not (entirely) their own. How frustrating it is to think of all the medical researchers, journalists and health advocates who are preparing and publishing information about migraines, only to have their content harvested by a big-wig with no lived experience or a data-center with no human cells at all…
Grrr…
AI is here to stay.
But that doesn’t mean I have to smile about it.
When it comes to healing – people matter – keep reaching out to real people. Help them and let them help you.
Take care taking care,
Linda x
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PS: my blog-buddy Edward has a great exploration of similar themes here: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Books – Thoughts about leadership, history, and more
PPS – I ran the abstract of a journal article I wrote for my PhD through an AI checker that the schools use to check for AI content. The paper was pre-AI and is all mine. Regardless, it received a score of 67% probability that it included AI content… apparently a lot of academic writing gets a ‘false positive’… sigh.
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