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.
Well, it turns out the myth of sewer gators is real. A Florida work crew was on a job in Oviedo when they discovered a five-foot gator hanging out in a giant sewage pipe. The crew filmed the run in and posted it to their Facebook page where it has since gone viral.
Voice artist Amanda Elgie joins this edition of Stretching Your Dollar to talk about how she turned a side gig into a lucrative business.
The peak summer travel season is almost here, and pilots are stepping up their pressure on major airlines for new contracts that will include higher pay.
It's kitten season, and the ASPCA is asking cat lovers to step up and adopt. Valeria Caceres-Gil, senior manager of admissions and matchmaking at the ASPCA Adoption Center, joins Cheddar News to introduce some of furry friends that are currently looking for an owner.
A federal appeals court overturned all fraud convictions Wednesday of two parents who were found guilty of paying bribes to get their kids into elite universities as part of a sprawling college admissions scandal.
A U.S. Marine veteran who used a fatal chokehold on an agitated New York City subway passenger was freed from custody hours after surrendering on a manslaughter charge.
Pandemic-related asylum restrictions that expelled migrants millions of times have ended in a shift that threatens to put a historic strain on the nation’s beleaguered immigration system.
On A Positive Note: School Bus Driver Launches Wacky Hat Friday's For Students
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A man who kept a chokehold around the neck of an agitated fellow passenger in the New York City subway has turned himself in on a manslaughter charge.
