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Review
Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 12 Sep 2024.
This is a 3-part Twine piece about a series of conversations between a person seeking mental health support and an AI mental health chatbot. Initially the person is the one seeking help, but things take a different turn as the game ensues.
This raised lots of thoughts for me about AI chatbots and whether the chatbot seemed real or not. But also about the appropriateness of such technology in this setting. As someone with a significant mental health diagnosis I can see advantages and disadvantages of such technology. And this game does address the issue of how well things are controlled.
The game - going into bigger spoilers here - also raises the issue of reprogramming the AI chatbot. Which I found concerning on two grounds. Humans can’t be reprogrammed so easily. And I liked the personality of the AI chatbot, and worried how much it would be like itself after reprogramming.
Which is reallly quite an achievement of the author to get me to think like that.
So a thought-provoking piece. Even if I am somewhat alarmed by such use of technology in a mental health setting.
