Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson AI Therapy Deep Dive: Can a Chatbot Be Your Therapist? w/ Dr. Nick Jacobson
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Sep 22, 2025 Dr. Nick Jacobson, associate professor at Dartmouth and developer of the AI therapy chatbot Therabot, joins the discussion on the rise of AI in mental health. He delves into whether AI can replace human therapists and outlines the risks of using general chatbots. They explore concerns about AI bias, oversight, and accountability, along with the benefits of expanded access to therapy. The conversation raises questions about empathy, the potential pitfalls of attributing human-like qualities to AI, and the implications for the future of mental health treatment.
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AI Won’t Replace Therapists Entirely
- Demand for mental health far outstrips human provider supply, so AI can expand access at scale.
- Nick Jacobson argues AI will augment care but not fully replace human therapists.
Don’t Use Generic Chatbots For Therapy
- Avoid using general-purpose LLMs as unsupervised therapists because they often give non-evidence-based, soothing but unhelpful responses.
- Use therapy-specific models trained on evidence-based materials and oversight instead.
Therabot’s Training Iterations
- Early Therabot training on peer forums produced escalatory, non-therapeutic replies instead of help.
- Switching to psychotherapy training transcripts and custom curated data produced much better behavior.
