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ChatGPT can pass for human connection – and therein lies its appeal and danger

The AI-enabled chatbot can be a boost to the mental health sector, provided users understand its limits

ChatGPT is a GPT-3 model an autoregressive language model released in 2020 that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Malavika Menon

Amid all the excitement surrounding ChatGPT, the free chatbot

over the last few months, I found myself wondering what the bot would generate if I shared that I was sad and lonely, and asked it what to do.

Quick as lightning came the response, eerily designed to look like someone was typing on the other side.