"We're going to see breaches. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week. But in a few years? I think we're going to see them. And I don't want my therapy session to be part of that."
We're glad to see that NPR is covering this topic of therapists using AI and recording sessions! Although, one nitpick -- two of the folks interviewed for this article work for an AI scribe that records sessions... And the same AI scribe at that. But the article only mentions this very important detail for one of them. If there are financial incentives to have a specific opinion, that needs to be very transparent and explicitly stated in the article. (To be clear, we love NPR!)
We believe that the number of therapists who want to continue to not record sessions vastly outweighs the number who do want to record. We encourage journalists to emphasize these opinions, versus the marketing and PR framing of the AI scribe companies.
We feel for Molly, who was quoted in the article. And we know others who have similar stories, of therapists recording sessions without their permission.
"The more I thought about it, the more I just started getting more and more sick to my stomach. This person who I'm supposed to be able to trust with some very private and very intense emotions had just completely disregarded something I said I was not comfortable with. I felt completely violated."
Ugh.
At a certain point, we need to ask ourselves: Why are some* therapists so cavalier with this? And we only have to look at the marketing and positioning from these AI scribe companies. They want us to think "oh, this isn't a big deal". It's the only way they can get people (therapists and clients) to consent and use their product!
*Most therapists, in our experience and observations, are opposed to recording sessions. They just aren't getting interviewed for these articles...
