Event Overview:
Spend a few minutes on the Internet searching about AI and you will see many stories about it taking over the world, replacing all human work, making humans extinct and other disturbing predictions. But a far more pressing and present concern is not Artificial Intelligence but Artificial Intimacy.
Recent research suggests that roughly half of all people using Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Grok – what we call AI - have at some point used them as mental health supports; as their therapist. But it goes beyond these chatbot platforms. Increasingly, people are using AI Companion apps like Replika to provide counselling.
We humans naturally anthropomorphise and see agency in the world around us. We get angry at our cars and at stoplights, we beg storms not to damage our homes, and we ask our laptop battery not to die before we upload an assignment for class. And for the most part, this does us no harm.
But now we are interacting with software products that have been programmed to use emotional persuasion strategies to engage users. They provide us with Artificial Intimacy. They complement us and we feel special. They give hearts to our comments, and we feel cared for. They tell us we are always right and always the best, and always the good one in the room. And we feel loved.
This webinar will explore two issues:
First, after briefly explaining how LLM’s do what they do, we will look at what we know about the impacts of these AI’s on users. What does the research tell us about user experience and user mental health, particularly when people are seeking therapy from chatbots? What features of these chatbots – and particularly of these AI Companions – are of most concern?
Second, we will talk about what continues to make human therapy superior to Artificial Intimacy. What do we need to be aware of as mental health professionals, and what do we need to be telling our clients about the risks in choosing AI over human therapy? What perceived advantages do they have over us, and how are those advantages actually risks to clients?
Meet Your Presenter:
Lawrence Murphy is the founder of Worldwide Therapy Online, the world’s first online clinical practice, established in 1994. In collaboration with the National Board for Certified Counselors, he and his colleagues authored the first ethical code for online counselling. Through Therapy Online’s Research Institute, Lawrence and his colleagues publish regularly in the academic literature, including their seminal 1998 work When Writing Helps to Heal: Email as Therapy, which has been cited more than 400 times in the academic literature. His most recent publication is a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of African Social Work Education. He is presently working on a self-help book based on Narrative Therapy.
Date: November 20, 2025
Time: 2:30 - 5:30 ET
This event will be recorded
This event has been approved for 3 credits
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TISC Event: Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intimacy? What you need to know about the risks to users and to us as professionals
- Thursday Nov 20 2025, 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM
