A chatbot pulled me out of a 'really dark place'

Alexa Jett has suffered some heavy blows in recent years. Now 28, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2016. Although she was given the all-clear, in August 2019 another crisis hit when her best friend and former boyfriend died of cancer at the age of 33. I started wondering whether I was next," Ms Jett says. She was unable to get out of bed and household chores piled up leaving the house in a mess. In desperation, she sought help online and from a mental health chatbot, called Vivibot. "Hey, why don't we make a goal?" the chatbot texted her on 10 September. She only had to paint her toenails for a start, but this simple task combined with the chatbot's "funny and friendly personality" and 24/7 presence, encouraged Ms Jett progressively to get more tasks accomplished. "She pulled me out of that really dark place and I started functioning again," says Ms Jett. Vivibot is offered through GRYT, an app-based social community for people affected by cancer. Dozens of similar services are available, which chat with their users on matters of mental health. They offer mood reports and tips on how to improve their mental and emotional state. "These chatbots are a great first step for people who may be experiencing sad or depressed mood or anxiety to reclaim their mental health," says Danielle Ramo, director of research at Hopelab, which designed Vivibot. She is quick to add that chatbots cannot treat clinical depression or clinical anxiety, and are not designed to replace a human interaction of any sort. However, clinical psychologist Noel Hunter says that some chatbots are not marketed that way and instead present themselves as a solution for mental health problems. "They're very careful to not explicitly say that because then they get sued.