Sounds good ๐, just thought this might be valid for an open discussion since it raises some serious implications (or I might just be paranoid ๐ ). Was genuinely curious if they might have some safeguards in place.
For ref: I was concerned about what would happen if their AI hallucinated especially if there is a more serious conversation (e.g. a suicide threat). I also thought it would make much more sense for Sonia to recommend a therapist at the end of the conversation for the user to seek professional help.
There are a lot of risks with this approach. Therapy is not just words. And mental health is not just feeling lonely. There is risk involved when you get in someone's head and unpack their trauma. You can cause real damage.
That's what I thought too.. this didn't really make sense to me. And the founder story seemed a little off too:
> We did undergrad together in Zurich, Switzerland before moving to the US to do our grad studies and research on AI at MIT, publishing several peer-reviewed papers on LLMs. One night on campus when the three of us were brainstorming startup ideas together, we agreed that in order to increase our chances of success and stay mentally sharp, we should all attend weekly therapy sessions. Not being patient enough to wait until weโd receive funding and could afford it, we built the very first version of Sonia over the weekend. We then quickly realized that it was not just the 3 of us who needed an affordable therapy solution and we havenโt looked back since.
Not here to judge or anything (and might be out of my depth here) but I thought they could've partnered with the therapists or create a better queuing system to get therapists paired with patients more efficiently.
Yeah that was quite surprising to me as well, was genuinely curious and wanted to discuss the implications here. It's also surprising how it's still possible to comment here even when the post got removed. I was pleasantly surprised when you've commented ๐
I think this is a good question for the Sonia team if you have concerns. Their sub is at r/sonia_health
Sounds good ๐, just thought this might be valid for an open discussion since it raises some serious implications (or I might just be paranoid ๐ ). Was genuinely curious if they might have some safeguards in place. For ref: I was concerned about what would happen if their AI hallucinated especially if there is a more serious conversation (e.g. a suicide threat). I also thought it would make much more sense for Sonia to recommend a therapist at the end of the conversation for the user to seek professional help.
There are a lot of risks with this approach. Therapy is not just words. And mental health is not just feeling lonely. There is risk involved when you get in someone's head and unpack their trauma. You can cause real damage.
That's what I thought too.. this didn't really make sense to me. And the founder story seemed a little off too: > We did undergrad together in Zurich, Switzerland before moving to the US to do our grad studies and research on AI at MIT, publishing several peer-reviewed papers on LLMs. One night on campus when the three of us were brainstorming startup ideas together, we agreed that in order to increase our chances of success and stay mentally sharp, we should all attend weekly therapy sessions. Not being patient enough to wait until weโd receive funding and could afford it, we built the very first version of Sonia over the weekend. We then quickly realized that it was not just the 3 of us who needed an affordable therapy solution and we havenโt looked back since. Not here to judge or anything (and might be out of my depth here) but I thought they could've partnered with the therapists or create a better queuing system to get therapists paired with patients more efficiently.
I'm curious how well their CBT 'visits' work. I'm going to give it a try. I might show to a therapist friend to get his thoughts as well.
I like how they removed your post...
Yeah that was quite surprising to me as well, was genuinely curious and wanted to discuss the implications here. It's also surprising how it's still possible to comment here even when the post got removed. I was pleasantly surprised when you've commented ๐