About 3 percent of students in the study had positive mental health outcomes, reporting that talking to the chatbot “halted their suicidal ideation.” But researchers also found “there are some cases where their use is either negligible or might actually contribute to suicidal ideation.”
This is referring to a bot designed to help with people struggling with mental health, and is actually a big one. That number is way too low.
Imagine a 3% success rate being acceptable in any situation. That tends to get you fired.
3% success vs what? 6% sent over the edge? 10% 20% ?
If the journalist asked for a specific figure but was evaded then it should be stated in the article.
I don’t much like that take. Ars commits excellent journalism.
From the story:
About 3 percent of students in the study had positive mental health outcomes, reporting that talking to the chatbot “halted their suicidal ideation.” But researchers also found “there are some cases where their use is either negligible or might actually contribute to suicidal ideation.”
I don’t think they contacted the researchers and the linked study does not seem to give the answer (I spent a few minutes looking).
I generally don’t go about doing research for free.
Ars offers free articles while most publications have a paywall, so I imagine funding isn’t as generous as it would have been 30 years ago when such publications would have been in magazine format.
Ars is actually my only paid subscription. Didn’t need to, but wanted to support their journalism.
I mistakenly thought you were the actual journalist. But I should always presume the journalist will see my comments and therefore not be so harsh, especially when freeloading.
FWIW I subscribe to an (Australian) online newspaper which is free just like you do. The difference being that I rarely read it since I am on top of those topics largely. Am just glad that it exists for others because it is well researched and presented.
I removed the insult.
Thank you.
Wasn’t this an episode of Black Mirror back when it was still really good?
Yeah, I know someone who won’t watch that episode again because of how unsettling it is. Luckily for them, it’s slowly becoming reality.
I watched until season 6 and all of it was really amazing. Is S7 bad?
Nah, not particularly… If you like it up til then, you will probably like it.
It’s not that I think it got bad or anything, but I think there was a noticeable drop in quality from season 3 to season 4 (the second Netflix season).
The first two seasons, when it was still on Channel 4 in the UK, were just so fucking good. Only a few episodes each, but man. And the Christmas episode with Jon Hamm, goddamn. So fucking good. Some of the best sci-fi ever put to film imo.
Then Netflix bought it. Season 3 was good, it had some bangers (I imagine Charlie Brooker had some of the plots ready to go already). Then… I don’t know maybe it’s because they were pushed to write like 3x more episodes per season? The quality suffered.
The show is still solid, and I will watch the new season for sure. But I don’t know, it’s just not the same as it was.
Oh hey, reality being even worse than Black Mirror again 😿
This will become more common. I’ve seen dead people involved in scams on the internet.
