FOR FOOD-LIKE SUBSTANCES –
May 26, 2023 – Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, a professor of psychiatry whose team developed Tessa, told NPR that while the chatbot was designed to be “empathetic,” “it is not, again, a human,”
“It’s not an open-ended tool for you to talk to and feel like you’re just going to have access to kind of a listening ear — maybe like the helpline was,” Fitzsimmons-Craft said. “It’s really a tool in its current form that’s going to help you learn and use some strategies to address your disordered eating and your body image.”
The helpline, which was used by nearly 70,000 people last year, is no longer taking new calls or messages and is transitioning to Tessa in June.
