Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Woebot Health made the news recently for some of its disastrously flawed artificial bot responses to text messages that were sent to it mimicking a mental health crisis.
Woebot, which raised $90 million in a Series B round, responded that it is not intended for use during crises. Company leadership woefully expects patients, who may not be thinking philippines whatsapp number data completely rationally, to have the recognition to stop using their typical form of communication and reach out to an alternative system.
While physicians are held responsible for harm inflicted upon patients for treatment, startup companies seeking to enter this space are not held to the same standard. To make matters worse for vulnerable patients, these systems are also not held to the same privacy standards.
Entering the AI space and interacting directly with patients is especially complicated because many patients routinely experience attenuated crises, below the threshold of needing to call 911, making a bot not equipped for handling crises most likely not well equipped to handle the throes that patients experience on a daily basis.