Can a chatbot be a responsible therapist? Dartmouth professor aims to find out

Dartmouth researchers Michael Heinz and Nicholas Jacobson developed Therabot, a generative AI mental health chatbot currently undergoing testing in approved research studies. The tool is being used within Dartmouth’s Center for Technology and Behavioral Health to assess its potential as an interactive intervention in therapy. Researchers emphasize the need for ethical guardrails when using such tools, stressing that their model differs from general conversational AI.