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.
Police say officers confronted the 21-year-old Atlanta man on Tuesday and used a Taser stun gun after he refused to drop the weapon. Authorities say they don't believe there's an ongoing threat.
Over 70% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have already fled their homes, but the growing numbers making their way south point to an increasingly desperate situation in and around Gaza’s largest city, which has come under heavy Israeli bombardment in recent days.
The CDC released a report with troubling statistics about the number of reported syphilis cases in newborns, with cases rising 10-fold in the last decade and nearly 32% in just one year.
A Colorado jury found Nathan Woodyard, the last police officer to face charges in connection to the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, not guilty of manslaughter.
Nearly one million chickens are gonna be slaughtered in Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa to help limit the spread of bird flu.
Authorities say a 69-year-old Jewish man was killed in Thousand Oaks, California during an altercation at a Sunday rally over the Israel-Hamas war.
Federal police seized 220 pounds of illegal drugs which had an estimated street value of $8 million.
A former captain was found guilty Monday for his role in a deadly boat fire off the coast of southern California that left 33 passengers and one crew member dead in 2019.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza for an indefinite period after its war with Hamas.
The Gaza director for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says the average Palestinian in Gaza is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from flour that the U.N. had stockpiled in the region.
