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Abortion chatbot Charley helps women end their pregnancies: 'Let's get started'

FOX News

For those women who are considering terminating their pregnancies, a new chatbot called Charley aims to help them start the process of getting an abortion. The chatbot, which launched on Sept. 12, is available on Charley's website, greeting visitors with the message, "Need an abortion? On its website, Charley is described as "designed by abortion experts, made for abortion seekers." One of its co-founders is Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood. Richards "oversees legal, political, and policy matters and leads fundraising efforts" for Charley, according to the chatbot's website. Another co-founder is Tom Subak, former chief strategy officer at Planned Parenthood. A new chatbot called Charley aims to help women start the process of getting an abortion. Charley isn't an app -- it lives online, on its own website. While individuals can freely visit the site, the company is also seeking medical providers who will agree to embed the chatbot directly on their own websites, "to meet abortion seekers wherever they are online," said Nicole Cushman, Charley's New York-based content manager, in an interview with Fox News Digital. Cushman, who has held leadership positions at Planned Parenthood, said the idea for the chatbot came about after Roe v. Wade was overturned -- with the goal of "improving people's online search experience." "Our research showed that people were turning primarily to Google for information about abortion options in the post-Roe landscape, and that it was very challenging for abortion seekers to connect to available options," she said. People "were ending up in an endless Google loop." "This was particularly the case if they were living in a state with an abortion ban or restriction -- they were ending up in an endless Google loop." One of Charley's co-founders is Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood. The company is seeking medical providers who will agree to embed the chatbot directly on their own websites. Charley's creators envisioned a "simple, effective way to pull together information from a range of sources" and "cut through the confusion," Cushman told Fox News Digital. Unlike large language models like ChatGPT, Charley doesn't allow people to type questions. Instead, the chatbot uses a "decision tree" format that guides visitors through a series of pre-written prompts, including the desired type of abortion and the date of their last menstrual period. It also asks for a zip code to determine the specific abortion laws in the visitor's state of residence. 'PRO-LIFE GENERATION IS ALIVE AND WELL' AS FURIOUS FIGHT FOR THE UNBORN CONTINUES For example, when Fox News Digital entered a zip code in Ohio, the response was: "Currently, abortion care is legal in Ohio, but only up to 22 weeks.


A Peer-Reviewed Portrait of Suffering

The Atlantic - Technology

The last words that Liviana Sulzer spoke, 18 months ago, were very much in character: "Now it's time for a song." This was often how she felt, living as she did inside a toddler movie-musical, where even just a spilled cup of milk could get her up onto a chair, twirling with her arms out wide and singing as loud as she could manage: We just spilled our milk … It was messy on the table, and then we cleaned it up … And noooow it's aaaaall cleeeaaaned up! When the song was over, she'd bend toward her brothers, ages 6 and 1, in a deep and gracious bow. It was May 2020--a week before Livie's fourth birthday--and the kids were playing in the yard. Throughout the Sulzers' quiet neighborhood in Austin, Texas, the Persian silk trees had begun to bloom in pink-tipped puffs. There were flowers in their backyard, too. Livie had a favorite one, purple and about as tall as she was. Iris and, trapped at home by the COVID-19 shutdown, she'd made a game of scooting over to it in her push-car and spilling all her problems. But the loneliest phase of the pandemic, with its makeshift games and spotty child care, was nearly over. Things were getting back to normal. A nanny had started just over a week before, and Livie's mother, Lindsay--a bioengineer and expert in regenerative medicine--was headed to the office for her first day back at work, at a local cell-therapy start-up. Livie's father, James, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in rehabilitation robotics, was grading papers in the walk-in closet that he'd turned into a home office. He'd asked his graduate students to propose studies or devices that might one day help a patient recover from a nervous-system injury. The sky was clear and calm and sunny. Livie stood near the center of the yard, 30 feet below the overhanging branches of a pecan tree. Her two brothers were nearby.