The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) has dissolved its helpline staff and will replace them with a chatbot called “Tessa” starting June 1. The calls led to a mass burnout of the staff. The six paid employees oversee a volunteer staff of about 200, who handled (sometimes multiple) calls from nearly 70,000 people last year.
Nada officials NPR said The decision has nothing to do with unions. Instead, Vice President Lauren Smollar said, the increasing number of calls and largely volunteer staff creates more legal liability for the organization and wait times for people who need help are increasing.
“It is, frankly, unacceptable in 2023 that people have to wait a week or more to receive the information they need, the specialized treatment options they need,” she said.
Former workers, however, call the move blatantly anti-union.
NEDA claims that this was a long overdue change and that AI could better serve those with eating disorders, Abe Harper wrote, Affiliated in the helpline and a member of the syndicate. “But don’t be fooled — this isn’t really about a chatbot. This is about union busting, plain and simple.”
The creator of Tessa says the chatbot, which was built specifically for NEDA, is not as advanced as ChatGPT. Instead, it is programmed with a limited number of responses intended to help people learn strategies for avoiding eating disorders. It is not a sympathetic ear.
Ellen Fitzsimmons Craft, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine who helped design Tessa, told NPR.
NEDA is in the process of closing the helpline now.