The National Eating Disorders Association has disabled its chatbot after the association said it “may have given information that was harmful and unrelated to the program.”
Last week, it was reported that the association, also known as NEDA, was planning to fire its six paid staffers on Thursday, June 1, while continuing to offer the chatbot, named Tessa, after the human helpline is shut down.
Now, NEDA has taken Tessa offline as it conducts an investigation, according to a post shared on Instagram.
The news came after Sharon Maxwell, a “weight inclusive consultant” and “fat activist” according to her Instagram bio, shared an Instagram slideshow on Monday about her experience with Tessa, saying, “Every single thing Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder.”
According to Maxwell, Tessa advised her to count her calories, weigh, and measure herself weekly.
The Daily Dot reported that Sarah Chase, NEDA’s vice president of communications and marketing, commented on Maxwell’s post saying, “This is a flat out lie.” Maxwell told The Daily Dot that Chase deleted the comments after Maxwell showed her screenshots of her conversation with the chatbot.
In a statement shared with Insider, NEDA CEO Elizabeth Thompson said NEDA has “not seen any of the kinds of messages or issues reported on Monday with any previous users,” since the chatbot was made available to the public in February 2022.
“As the leading nonprofit in the eating disorders field, with regard to the weight loss and calorie limiting feedback issued in a chat Monday, please know that language is against our policies and core beliefs,” Thompson told Insider, adding that NEDA is working with X2Ai, the developer behind the chatbot, to make sure the content is safe. Thompson also told Insider that the chatbot “is an algorithmic program,” “not a highly functional AI system,” that is meant to run NEDA’s Body Positive interactive eating disorder prevention program.
Between February 2022 and May 2023, Thompson said 5,289 people have used Tessa. Chase previously told Insider the chatbot was not meant to replace the human helpline staff.
“We are adding Tessa as a new opportunity and ending the Helpline program, but bear in mind these two services are NOT comparable,” she said. “It is a completely different program offering and was borne out of the need to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of our community.”
Abbie Harper, a helpline staffer, wrote in a blog post about NEDA’s reported plan to fire its human staff that “Some of us have personally recovered from eating disorders and bring that invaluable experience to our work. All of us came to this job because of our passion for eating disorders and mental health advocacy and our desire to make a difference.”
In a statement previously shared with Insider, the NEDA Helpline Associates Union said, “A chat bot is no substitute for human empathy, and we believe this decision will cause irreparable harm to the eating disorders community.”
The post Eating disorder helpline that reportedly planned to fire its human staff disables its chatbot after a woman said it told her to count calories, weigh, and measure herself weekly appeared first on Business Insider.
