Chapter 2: Therapy online: Good as face to face?{0}
Elizabeth Landau’s article entitled Therapy online: Good as face to face? delves into the world of psychotherapy using artifical intelligence. She explains how it was started in the 1960′s with a computer program called ELIZA that was designed to actually mimic an actual therapist. It would ask questions and respond the way an actual therapist would. This has progressed to be available online today. There is still a quite prevalent aspect of therapist doing to their work online, without the face-to-face interaction. There is believed to be quite a future fo this as it allows at a low cost for the patient to interact with the therapist without having to deal with embarrassing personal interaction. There are “ELIZA’s” today that incorporate text, graphics, videos, and more. It is not real clear what the future holds for this industry.
It relates to the text in that it has to do with the artificial intelligence aspect. It is about using technology to do the job that a human would normally do. As the text states, technology can be used to mimic human intelligence. In the article’s case, it improves the decision making process. No longer do people have to wait for an actual person to service their needs.
I liked the article because it was fascinating. It is intriguing to think of the idea of using a computer program for psychoanalysis. I like the aspect that it is a lot cheaper than actual human care and it has the possibility to work well. It could just get dangerous if a computer makes a mistake with a person that is suicidal.
Landau, E. (2009) Therapy online: Good as face to face? CNNhealth.com. Retrieved September 3, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/31/online.internet.therapy.cbt./index.html?iref=newssearch