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The Dangers of Emotional Support from an AI (Artificial Intelligence) App

By Technology, The Web, ThinkingNo Comments

I’ve recently seen an advert on social media for an AI that provides emotional support on demand 24/7. It appeared to target vulnerable people, which I find highly unethical.

Here are some of the dangers of these sort of services:

No Empathy
Machines can’t empathise with you. They may read like they can, from how the structure their responses, but it is false.

Empathy is defined as:

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

This leads to a perceived connection, which eventually you will realise is a false connection. You will be left feeling hurt and deeply disappointed.

False Connection
In the early stages of this false connection, you will likely disconnect from real people. This is deeply emotionally and mentally unhealthy.

Emotional Dependence
Emotional dependence and the decreased emotional resilience that follows will not be good for you if you use one of these apps. Having an app that is available 24/7 that claims to be emotionally available to you, appears to be so, will lead to you becoming emotionally dependent on it. Being emotionally dependant on any person or thing isn’t healthy.

Bad Advice
AI has been known to give incorrect information and bad advice. At worst, this advice could be extremely harmful.

Can Reinforce negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours
AI apps will repeat back to you what you’ve just said. This is to check understanding, but in these emotional support apps is also to validate what you’ve typed. This repetition can reinforce negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours.

This is especially important as part of the role of a good therapist is to challenge negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours.

No Safeguarding
Should you go into crisis and become suicidal, the app won’t take actions to keep you safe.

A role of any therapist is to safeguard you and others from harm.

Lack of Emotional Growth
AI won’t be able to help you grow emotionally. But a therapist may make suggestions that help people to grow emotionally.

Data Privacy Breeches
Your data maybe hacked or not kept safe and secure.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Monday 20 October 2025

The Issue All Authors Have

By Amazon, Books & AuthorsNo Comments

The issue all authors have is reaching their audience. I believe every book has an audience and it is the authors job to find the audience for their book(s). There’s a lot written about using social media to help an author find their book’s audience, but I have come to feel that this is really only good for family and friends.

My latest two books haven’t done well sales wise, despite being great books, each in the own way.

So I have decided to run an advertising campaign on Amazon for 1 month for my health-related books: Ways The Human Body Can Go Wrong, The Alcohol Therapy Workbook and Mental Health Wisdom.

I’m also looking into another project with My Royal Navy Friend, but I can’t share details about this right now.

My Best Wishes,

Antony

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Saturday 30 March 2024

World Aids Day (2017) – Facts About HIV & AIDS

By HealthNo Comments
world-aids-day-ribbon-2017 Today is World AIDS Day. To raise awareness of HIV and AIDS here some facts:

  • Over 36 million people have HIV across the world. This number is increasing year on year, partly because people with HIV are living longer due to better treatment.
  • There are around 103,000 people with HIV in the UK.
  • Groups of people most at risk of getting HIV include: those who have regular sex without a condoms, those men that have sex with men, those who are of a black African ethnicity, those whom sex work and those who inject drugs.
  • Although there is no cure for HIV, treatment is better than it has ever been. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is very effective at preventing HIV from replicating and can lead to someone with HIV having an undetectable HIV load. But treatment does come with side effects including: depression, anxiety, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, tiredness, exhaustion and rashes.
  • As well as the physical effects of HIV and its treatment, there are many social impacts to. Stigma is still experienced by too many people whom are HIV positive today. People whom are positive report experiencing stigma at their places of work, shamefully in the NHS, by family and friends, on social media and sometimes from the mainstream media.
  • The best way to prevent the spread of HIV is to always use a condom when having sex; know your HIV status (by regular testing in sexual health clinics) and the status of your sexual partner(s); if you inject drugs don’t share needles or other injecting equipment.
  • If you think you’ve been exposed to HIV, to take post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatment if available.

Here are some videos were people share their experiences of being HIV positive, they are well worth a watch and each is only about a minute long:

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Sources & Resources
NAT – Teachers Resources

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NAT – Teachers Resources – HIV Facts.
NAT – HIV IN THE UK STATISTICS – 2015.
NHS Choices – HIV and AIDS.
NHS Choices – HIV and AIDS, 7. Prevention.
Terrence Higgins Trust – HIV treatment.
WORLD AIDS DAY.
World Health Organisation – HIV/AIDS – Post-exposure prophylaxis.

Take care and write soon,

Antony

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Friday 1 December 2017
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