Before a Bot Steals Your Job, It Will Steal Your Name

In May, Tessa went rogue. The National Eating Disorder Association's chatbot had recently replaced a phone hotline and the handful of staffers who ran it. But although it was designed to deliver a set of approved responses to people who might be at risk of an eating disorder, Tessa instead recommended that they lose weight. "Every single thing that Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder," one woman who reviewed the chatbot wrote on Instagram. "It was not our intention to suggest that Tessa could provide the same type of human connection that the Helpline offered," the nonprofit's CEO, Liz Thompson, told NPR.