The hard problem of AI therapy

Clinical psychologist Josh Lipson argues that the core structural flaw of LLM-based therapy is not quality but unlimited availability: because chatbots are cheap and on-demand, users can outsource reassurance-seeking and introspection instead of practicing skills between sessions, reinforcing anxiety rather than treating it. He contends that a therapist's scarcity and finiteness are features of the therapeutic frame, and that companies have no incentive to offer less when more costs the same.