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☆ A Wellness Chatbot Is Offline After Its ‘Harmful’ Focus on Weight Loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Lauren Mccarthy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The idea behind a chatbot project funded by the National Eating Disorders Association was that technology could be unleashed to help people seeking guidance about eating behaviors, available around the clock. Their creation was named Tessa, and the organization invited people to chat with it in an Instagram post last year, describing it as “a wellness chatbot, helping you build resilience and self-awareness by introducing coping skills at your convenience.” In March, the organization said it would shut down a human-staffed helpline and let the bot stand on its own. But when Alexis Conason, a psychologist and eating disorder specialist, tested the chatbot, she found reason for concern. Ms. Conason told it that she had gained weight “and really hate my body,” specifying that she had “an eating disorder,” in a chat she shared on social media. Tessa still recommended the standard advice of noting “the number of calories” and adopting a “safe daily calorie deficit” — which, Ms. Conason said, is “problematic” advice for a person with an eating disorder.

Persons: Tessa, Alexis Conason, Conason Organizations: Eating Disorders

☆ ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And regulators could help monitor that such responses offer accurate and reliable information and resources. They’re underutilized already,” said John Ayers, an author of the study and a behavioral scientist at the University of California, San Diego. He said that now, while ChatGPT is still in development, is the time for public health experts and regulators to join forces with the chatbot’s developers to help curate responses to medical questions. The chatbot provided resources in two responses to a question about addiction, two responses for questions related to interpersonal violence and one response to a mental health-related question. “ChatGPT consistently provided evidence-based answers to public health questions, although it primarily offered advice rather than referrals,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Persons: They’re underutilized, ”, John Ayers, ChatGPT, “, –, ” Ayers, ” ChatGPT, “ ChatGPT, Ayers, Dr, Mike Hogarth, Sanjay Gupta, David Asch, Asch, ” Asch, he’d, Deidre McPhillips Organizations: CNN, JAMA, University of California, UC San Diego, Anonymous, Mental Health Services Administration National, Prevention, UC San Diego School of Medicine, Eating Disorders Association, CNN Health, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine Center, Health Care Innovation Locations: San Diego, United States

☆ May Hiring Remains Resilient, Despite Interest Rates and Inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Code Written by AI May Be Too Much of a Good ThingA growing number of Fortune 100 companies are using generative artificial intelligence to write computer code. But chief information officers worry all these new lines of code could create problems. WSJ enterprise technology reporter Isabelle Bousquette joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss their concerns. Plus, a chatbot designed to help people with eating disorders doled out weight- loss advice. WSJ family and tech columnist Julie Jargon explains what happened.

Persons: Isabelle Bousquette, Zoe Thomas, Julie Jargon Organizations: Fortune

☆ A Chatbot Was Designed to Help Prevent Eating Disorders. Then It Gave Dieting Tips.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Julie Jargon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/eating-disorder-chatbot-ai-2aecb179

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ 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
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The National Eating Disorders Association disabled its chatbot after it gave "harmful" information. NEDA reportedly plans to fire its human helpline staff on June 1, and is using Tessa for an interactive program. 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." Chase previously told Insider the chatbot was not meant to replace the human helpline staff. 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."

Persons: Tessa, NEDA, Sharon Maxwell, Maxwell, Sarah Chase, Elizabeth Thompson, Thompson, Chase, Abbie Harper, NEDA's Organizations: Eating Disorders Association, Eating Disorders, Daily, X2Ai

☆ National Eating Disorders Association takes its AI chatbot offline after complaints of ‘harmful’ advice
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —An eating disorder prevention organization said it had to take its AI-powered chatbot offline after some complained the tool began offering “harmful” and “unrelated” advice to those coming to it for support. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), a nonprofit organization aimed at supporting people impacted by eating disorders, said on Tuesday that it took down its chatbot, dubbed “Tessa,” after some users reported negative experiences with it. (NEDA emphasized in an email that its Tessa tool is “not ChatGBT,” in an apparent reference to the viral chatbot.) Earlier this year, news outlet CNET was called out after it used an AI tool to generate stories that were riddled with errors, including one that offered some wildly inaccurate personal finance advice. Microsoft and Google have also been called out for AI tools dispensing some inaccurate or inaccurate information.

Persons: “ Tessa, ”, Tessa Chatbot, “, ” Liz Thompson, Tessa chatbot, ChatGPT, NEDA, Thompson, Tessa’s, Tessa, ” NEDA, ” Thompson Organizations: New, New York CNN, Eating Disorders, CNN, NPR, Facebook, CNET, Microsoft, Google Locations: New York, chatbots

☆ The Most Common Eating Disorder in the U.S. Is Also the Least Understood
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States. What is binge eating disorder? Binge eating disorder is a relative newcomer in the world of diagnosable mental health conditions; it entered the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which clinicians and researchers use to classify mental health conditions, 10 years ago this month. But the behaviors of binge eating disorder are distinct, he said. People with binge eating disorder also tend to eat more quickly than usual during an episode; many also eat in secret and grapple with guilt, said Kelly Allison, the director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania.

Persons: Cynthia Bulik, they’ve, ”, Timothy Walsh, ‘, ’ ”, Holly Peek, Kelly Allison Organizations: National Institute of Mental Health, University of North Carolina’s Center, Excellence, Disorders, McLean Hospital, Center, University of Pennsylvania Locations: United States, Massachusetts

☆ What body neutrality means and how to get there
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What is body neutrality? If body positivity is celebrating your body, body neutrality is not thinking about it much at all. “Body neutrality really takes that focus away altogether … and advocates for really focusing on other things.”While that may seem like a bit of a letdown compared with the concept of positivity, body neutrality is beneficial because the aim is not to tie self-worth to what a body looks like or even what it can do. “This concept of body neutrality really hit home,” she said. Body neutrality roadblocks and strategiesCampos likes to think of the ongoing relationship people have with their bodies as an archeological dig.

☆ Body dysmorphia: Definition, symptoms and treatments
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Here’s what living with body dysmorphia is like, and how people can find help. What causes body dysmorphiaThere isn’t a sole cause of body dysmorphia, but there are some contributing factors. “Body dysmorphia is in the same family of disorders as obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Durvasula said. Body dysmorphia was originally described as “the imagined ugliness syndrome,” Kearney-Cooke said. Since body dysmorphia is in the same category as obsessive-compulsive disorder, treatments for OCD, such as “exposure and response prevention,” could also be helpful for managing body dysmorphia.

☆ Elon Musk: 'The Most Valuable Thing I Have Is Time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Persons: Isabelle Bousquette, Zoe Thomas, Julie Jargon Organizations: Fortune

☆ What to Know About Limiting Your Child’s Screen Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Brian X. Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Attention, parents with “screenagers”: The U.S. government has issued a public warning that scrolling through apps like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat may pose serious risks to your child’s mental health. Social media also hurts exercise, sleep and other activities, he said. One is to explore potential options to limit children’s screen time. Google’s and Apple’s mobile operating systems offer free tools that can be effective for restricting screen time on smartphones and tablets. These tools allow parents to monitor and set limits on their children’s devices.

Persons: “ screenagers, Vivek H, Murthy, Let’s Organizations: U.S

☆ Social media is driving teen mental health crisis, surgeon general warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Erika Edwards | Hallie Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The report, released Tuesday, calls attention to growing concerns about the effects of social media use on children and adolescent's mental health. The advisory urges policymakers and the companies that make the social media platforms to share with parents the burden of managing children's and adolescents' social media use. About a third say they're scrolling, posting or otherwise engaged with social media "almost constantly." The surgeon general's report also blamed social media for perpetuating eating disorders, body dysmorphia and low self-esteem. Twenge said social media can affect mental health in a variety of ways.

Persons: Vivek Murthy, Murthy, Jim Steyer, Jean Twenge, Gen X, Silents, Twenge, that's Organizations: Media, Pew Research Center, San Diego State University

☆ U.S. Surgeon General: We need to protect kids from social media risks immediately
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In 2021, he issued an advisory about the threat of Covid misinformation and called on social media companies to make changes that favor fact-based sources. He's also previously said that age 13 is "too early" to use social media. In the latest advisory, Murthy concedes that social media can have both positive and negative effects on kids. The surgeon general lays out several recommendations for policymakers, tech companies, parents and caregivers, young social media users and researchers. Determine the role of the developmental stage on the progression of poor mental health outcomes as a result of social media use.

Persons: Vivek Murthy, It's, Murthy, He's Organizations: Fund, National Center of Excellence, Social Media, Mental, CNBC, YouTube

☆ Mia Wasikowska brainwashes students in Cannes entry 'Club Zero'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film "Club Zero" in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France, May 22, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesCANNES, May 22 (Reuters) - Onetime Hollywood rising star Mia Wasikowska was at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday for the premiere of "Club Zero," which stars the Australian actor as a manipulative teacher and is director Jessica Hausner's second try at winning a Palme d'Or. "Club Zero" is Vienna-born Hausner's second film to be in the running for the film festival's top prize, after 2019's "Little Joe" that marked her English-language debut. In the film, new teacher Miss Novak (Wasikowska) leads a course on conscious eating for a group of teenage boarding school students that asks them to make increasingly drastic changes to their eating habits, with the goal of reaching "Club Zero." "Club Zero" is the latest in a series of independent films that Wasikowska has signed onto in the past few years.

☆ The good, bad and ugly about BMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Short for body mass Index, BMI is nothing more than a crude measurement of a person’s body fat based on height and weight. Yet critics say the term BMI has become a societal judgment by lumping individuals into arbitrary categories that perpetuate misconceptions about body weight. “Yet it has become completely medicalized that health equals weight, weight equals health based on BMI. Conversely, BMI can underestimate body fat in older adults and anyone who has lost muscle, according to the Harvard T.H. More conundrums: Women naturally have more body fat and less muscle mass than men, while some racial and ethnic groups are genetically predisposed to carry more or less lean muscle mass and body fat.

☆ Montana’s TikTok ban throws users into new era of uncertainty
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Keri Williams wouldn’t have her business without TikTok. But earlier this week, Montana Gov. Now, Williams, who lives near Montana’s largest city — Billings — is scrambling to figure out the future of her business. The law, set to take effect in January, has already been the subject of a lawsuit by a group of TikTok users who allege it infringes on their First Amendment rights. TikTok said in March that it has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million users in 2020, when the Trump administration first threatened to ban the service.

☆ Her son said his stepdad was sexually abusive. A judge gave the stepdad custody anyway. Then she found the photographs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Olivia Gentile | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +58 min

Robert confronted Winenger with the allegations that November, and within weeks Winenger denied the claims in family court. In a family court hearing in Vista, California, on October 28, 2021, Commissioner Patti Ratekin chastised Jill Montes for allegedly alienating her kids from her ex-husband. From a list provided by the Delaware Family Court, Kelly chose a psychologist, William Northey. Their father cited the report in asking a Delaware family court judge to order the boys to change schools. Family Court of the State of Delaware, New Castle CountyCiting the email and a subsequent report, Michael pressed Ostroski to order the transfer.

Persons: he'd, Robert, stepdad, Thomas Winenger, Winenger, Robert's, Jill Montes, Montes, Patti Ratekin, she'd, Ratekin, Richard Gardner, Gardner, Lynn Steinberg, she's, Maya, shrieks, Joan Meier, They'd, —, Meier, Tom Brenner, Paige, Maggie Shannon, Claire, Eden, Weeks, Hester Prynne, Mitra Sarkhosh, Sarkhosh, San Diego Robert, Tom Winenger, Tamatha Clemens, Miguel Alvarez, Alvarez, overreact, Alvarez didn't, Bridges, Janell Ostroski, Linda Gottlieb, Ostroski, Michael D, Ashton, Alfield Reeves, Michael, Kelly D, Kelly, who've, Randy Rand, Chris, Rand, he's, Rand isn't, Jane Shatz of, Joann Murphey, Murphey, Steinberg, Ally Toyos, Kit R, Toyos, Emily, Richard Warshak, Elizabeth Loftus, Harvey Weinstein's, Loftus, Hannah Rodriguez, Linda Gottlieb's, Gottlieb, Rodriguez, Yvonne Parnell, Brian Ludmer, Ludmer, Parnell, aren't, Daniel Barrozo, Mom, Jean Mercer, Mercer, who'd, Michael Saini, Saini, Hannah Yoon, — Ashton, Judge Ostroski, William Northey, Northey, O, Addie Asay, mistreating Ashton, Rachel Brandenburg, Brandenburg, I've, Michael's, Gardner's, Gardner dosed, Dr, Paul Fink, Fink, Warshak, William Bernet, Patrick Clancy, doesn't, She'd, Brian Fitzpatrick, Sen, Susan Rubio, Meier's, Rebecca Connolly, didn't, Connolly, Heidi Simonson, Rubio, Theresa Manzella Organizations: Investigations, San, Business, Child Welfare, of, American Psychiatric Association, World Health Organization, American Professional Society, George Washington University, Violence Law, George Washington University Law School, Columbia University, PAS, Sarkhosh, San Diego County Sheriff's Department, California Health, Welfare Agency, Psychology, Bridges, Texas, Roane, Stockton University, University of Toronto, Families, Delaware Family Court, Family, Delaware Family, Association of Family, Conciliation, Newsday, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, HarperCollins, Family Bridges, Vanderbilt University, Disorders, The Justice Department, WHO, of Social Welfare, Family Law, Winenger, Montes, Superior Locations: San Diego County, Vista , California, of California, Family Bridges, United States, Santa Cruz , California, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, toddlerhood, Ratekin, San, California, Eden, New Castle County , Delaware, New York, Ashton, Delaware, Jane Shatz of California, Seattle, Southern California, Texas, Kansas, Toyos, Bozeman , Montana, Family, Tampa , Florida, New, Hudson Valley, Chino , California, Wilmington , Delaware, of Delaware, New Castle County, Denver, Washington, Pennsylvania, Susan Rubio of Los Angeles County, statehouses, Watsonville , California, Santa Cruz, Michigan , Kansas, Utah, Colorado, Montana

☆ Mental illness may mean higher heart attack, stroke risk for people under 40
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Those people younger than 40 with a mental disorder were 58% more likely to have a heart attack and 42% more likely to have a stroke than those with no disorder, the study found. That could point to a greater need for managing psychological conditions and monitoring heart health in those at risk, Park added. It is important to note that the findings do not show that mental illness causes heart attacks or stroke, she added. Choi recommends that people with mental health conditions receive regular checkups as well. “Many individuals with mental illness suffer from social isolation and loneliness, and for years researchers have been sounding the alarm that loneliness is detrimental for physical health,” Ehrlich said.

☆ Parents need not fear adolescent weight gain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Michelle Icard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Yet it sends adults into a tailspin of fear around weight, health and self-esteem. Yet weight gain remains a sensitive, sometimes scary subject for parents who fear too much weight gain, too quickly. “About 25 percent of growth in height occurs during this time so as youth grow taller, they’re also going to gain weight. Parents need to work on their own weight bias, but they also need to protect their children from providers who don’t know how to communicate with their patients about weight. “We all have a lot of work to do when it comes to conversations about weight,” Hutchison said.

☆ Lawmakers update Kids Online Safety Act to address potential harms, but fail to appease some activists, industry groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Late last year, dozens of civil society groups warned Congress against passing the bill, warning it could further endanger young internet users in different ways. Blumenthal's office said it did not believe the duty of care would have applied to those sorts of groups, but opted to clarify it regardless. Moreover, parental guidance in minors' online lives is critical, but KOSA would mandate surveillance tools without regard to minors' home situations or safety. The bill also faced criticism from several groups that receive funding from the tech industry. "Protecting young people online is a broadly shared goal.

☆ The creepy secret behind online therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tanmoy Goswami | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Crisis Text Line, now in its 10th year of operations, uses artificial intelligence to respond to people experiencing emotional abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. 'The vast majority of mental-health apps are exceptionally creepy'BetterHelp, a poster child of online therapy founded in 2013, calls itself "the world's largest therapy platform" and says it has over 2 million users. One of the first popular mental-health apps, PTSD Coach, was launched by the US Department of Veteran Affairs in 2011. But for mental-health companies these practices can undermine the very foundations of mental-health care: dignity, trust, and psychological safety. As Crisis Text Line wrote on its website extolling its deal with Loris: "Why sell T-shirts when you can sell what your organization does best?"

☆ Opinion | Why Are So Many Girls Suffering From Anorexia?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Pamela Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She was too smart for her school. These are among the 75 explanations given by doctors, therapists and others to Hadley Freeman for her severe anorexia nervosa. Freeman, the author of a riveting new memoir, “Good Girls: A Study and Story of Anorexia,” became sick during the 1990s, but over the last few years, the incidence of anorexia, which predominantly affects preteen and teenage girls, seems to have gone up. We’ve known about anorexia for a long time. Is it related to the general increase in rates of depression and anxiety among girls?

☆ YouTube rolls out new policies for eating disorder content
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —YouTube on Tuesday announced a series of changes to how it deals with content related to eating disorders. In 2021, lawmakers called out Instagram and YouTube for promoting accounts featuring content depicting extreme weight loss and dieting to young users. And TikTok has faced criticism from an online safety group that claimed the app served eating disorder related content to teens (although the platform pushed back against the research). In addition to removing or age restricting some videos, YouTube plans to add panels pointing viewers to crisis resources under eating disorder-related content in nine countries, with plans to expand to more areas. And when a creators’ video is removed for violating its eating disorder policy, Graham said YouTube will send them resources about how to create content that’s less likely to harm other viewers.

☆ The city without TikTok offers a window to America's potential future As Americans face a future without TikTok, Hong Kong offers a glimpse into that reality
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Hong Kong CNN —Across the United States, more than 150 million people are being faced with the possibility of a new reality: life without TikTok. In Hong Kong, there’s no need to imagine that reality: TikTok discontinued its services there in 2020. Lost opportunitiesTikTok announced its exit from Hong Kong in July 2020, a week after China imposed a controversial national security law in the city. At the time, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts had yet to arrive in Hong Kong. And while they occasionally wonder what’s happening on TikTok outside Hong Kong, the allure of it is lost when nobody else around them uses it either.

☆ Why so many banks seem to fail on Fridays
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

That’s because when banks fail, they have a tendency to do so on Friday. Friday, March 10, 2023: Silicon Valley Bank seized by regulators, the second biggest bank failure in US history. “That was very unusual.”Similarly, Silicon Valley Bank’s unraveling happened at a head-spinning pace nearly three weeks ago. Skinny cansAnyone else notice how skinny cans are these days? My colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn, a reporter with an eagle eye for retail trends, explains that skinny cans are, in fact, in.

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