The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) has decided to remove hundreds of helpline staffers and volunteers after they voted to unionize, and now many of these positions will be replaced by a chatbot named Tessa. Cheddar’s Ashley Mastronardi spoke to one eating disorder expert who thinks this may have harmful consequences.
Update: The chatbot was taken down after reports that it was offering harmful advice. In response, NEDA sent Cheddar News this statement:
The Tessa chatbot was taken down over the weekend after it came to our attention that it provided "off-script" language. This was not how the chatbot was programmed, and X2AI/Cass' arrangement was to run the Body Positive program with zero opportunity for generative programming. We now know that over the weekend the chatbot was hacked and somehow was able to go off the pre-approved programmed responses. We will not be putting Tessa back on our website until we are confident this is not a possibility again.
Tessa has been available on our site since February 2022 and has had incredibly positive outcomes both in testing it before we launched on our website, as well as during the last year it has been available to NEDA users. Right now, the current program runs the Body Positive program for individuals at risk for an eating disorder - it is not a replacement for treatment and was never intended to be. It is designed to fill a gap for individuals with shape and weight concerns interested in tools before their thoughts and behaviors may progress to an eating disorder and need traditional professional interventions.
A New York judge has ordered that court documents related to a lawsuit from one of the accusers in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case be unsealed.
About 126 people have been killed in a massive earthquake in the northwest region of China.
Indigenous students from any of Wisconsin's 11 tribes will be able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison for free beginning next fall, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin announced Monday.
In the Red Sea this morning, a U.S. warship, the USS Carney responded to a distress call by a commercial vessel after it came under attack.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection in southern California announced it confiscated thousands of pounds of illegal drugs hidden in a jalapeno paste shipment.
Former family YouTuber Ruby Franke is set to enter a plea agreement on child abuse charges in a Utah courtroom, according to her lawyers. Frank and her business partner, Jody Hildebrand were arrested in August after two of Franke's children were found with injuries and evidence of malnutrition in Hildebrandt's home.
Backers are far from gathering enough signatures, but if the measure makes the June 2024 ballot and voters pass it, North Dakota would have to replace ballot scanners with hundreds of workers.
It's part of the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military facilities.
The company is asking customers to throw out certain types of granola bars and granola cereals to avoid infection.
It could be a cold, grim New Year for thousands of migrant families living in New York City’s emergency shelter system. With winter setting in, they are being told they need to clear out, with no guarantee they’ll be given a bed elsewhere.
