Bluesky. At a time when people are treating AI as a therapist, an AI companion company is hiring a human one.
EVA AI, which hosted a pop-up "first date" cafe that Mashable attended in Feb., has opened applications for an "AI companionship therapist." The job would be to help people work through their relationships with AI. In a survey EVA AI conducted of 1,000 adults with AI partners, 68 percent have hidden their AI relationship for fear of being judged, and 72 percent wished therapists specialized in this.
But why doesn't EVA AI program a therapist to do this job?
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"AI companionship is a relatively new concept, which means the dynamics are genuinely new — so we want a qualified therapist with professional expertise to guide such couples," Julia Momblat, head of partnerships and sales at EVA AI, told Mashable over email.
"Therapy involves clinical judgment, ethical accountability, and a duty of care that is a licensed expert's responsibility. Using AI to mediate AI relationships would defeat the purpose of seeking an outside perspective," she continued. "After all, our platform is built for companionship, not clinical care. We're building the platform where humans form connections with AI, and we do it well. We leave therapy to the experts."
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What do therapists think of AI companions? #
Therapists and other professionals themselves have varying opinions of AI companions. Therapist Dr. Rachel Wood told Mashable last year about numerous potential harms, such as loss of social skills, unhelpful feedback loops, and sychopancy.
Jaime Bronstein, LCSW, EVA AI's resident relationship therapist, told Mashable over a video call that these relationships can be "very beneficial for somebody who maybe wasn't feeling very loved in the past and wants to feel or be listened to and heard and understood and validated."
She also said that AI could be good practice for communication. Executive director of the Kinsey Institute, Justin Garcia (who is an evolutionary biologist, not a therapist), told Mashable in Feb. that AI can be somewhat helpful if thought of as "training wheels," but at some point the training wheels should come off.
When asked about AI psychosis and the violence that occurred after suspects had conversations with chatbots, Bronstein said that EVA AI is trained for this — and that "very scary things" have been happening since before AI, "because we've had Google for a long time."
"But it is very, very scary. But luckily, EVA is trained...to help with mental health and not to make it worse," she said. Overall, from what she's seen, AI relationships are more beneficial than harmful.
Bronstein, despite being the company's resident relationship therapist, isn't one of the therapists EVA AI is hiring. She was brought on to provide commentary for articles.
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Artificial Intelligence Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Bluesky.