“What an interesting query — have you tried using UCSD CAPS?” generated the AI therapist.
Photo by Amit Roth
Following widespread student complaints about the lack of mental health resources available on campus, UC San Diego has unveiled plans to expand TritonGPT’s “largely all-encompassing” and “legally error-free” services and add a “personalized AI therapist” to its system. The administration has stated that this feature is still in early development but that “[they] are confident it’ll work out” and have already rolled out the feature to the majority of students. Chancellor Khosla offered additional comments on the product: “We spent the lower end of one trillion dollars developing this product in collaboration with the mental health experts at Palantir. They really know their stuff — and your stuff! I am tremendously proud of the UC San Diego community and our ability to rally together to fully combat this crisis effectively.” Currently, the school will cover students with UC SHIP for five free conversations encompassing a maximum 200-word-count each, after which they will have to either pay per message or opt in for a monthly or yearly plan.
Some students have reported excitement for the rollout. “It’s in an alpha stage of development; that means it’s better, right?” said computer science student Gillian Vince. “It’s so much better than those other fraudulent ‘therapists’ on campus. I told them my suitemate had a problem with me wearing whatever I wanted in our shared space, and obviously it said I was in the right — who wouldn’t! Finally, someone who actually gets me,” said second year Arno Hans.
A larger group of students were more apprehensive about TritonGPT’s ability to provide adequate support, with some concerned about its ability to handle sensitive topics. Allegations that the AI therapist trained its responses based on confidential student conversations raised fears over potential HIPAA and privacy violations.
“I was just looking for advice on how to deal with a rude suitemate who kept walking around the apartment nude — which I’m fine with, by the way,” said second year Louis Gent. “They just also don’t wash their dishes, and TritonGPT told me that they knew the ‘real story’ and I was the one being rude and then called me a ‘problematic prude’?? Like?? Hello?? This is not helpful! Also, what does this robot know?”
Other testimonials have led to accusations that the AI therapist lacks proper therapeutic knowledge and is instead being programmed to provide “pro-UCSD propaganda” during sessions. “I told it I had concerns about UCSD and whether I could continue to afford to attend,” said second-year Ben Armand. “It replied by telling me ‘[I was] crazy’ and should ‘thug it out’ and ‘why would [I] want to leave a school whose rankings are rising year by year, now in the top 20!’ I don’t even know how to react to that. It also just kept relating everything back to Freud — and listen, I did one quarter of college; I’ve heard of the guy. Me not being able to manage time properly does not mean I want to fornicate with my mother!”
The UCSD administration emphasized that the product is still in development and is “always improving.”
“We can’t really trust student feedback,” stated one anonymous head engineer. “I mean they are literally unwell, but we do feed the data into Grok and ask how we can make it better. Additionally, we sell data to advertisement companies so students can have a better experience online. We’re always thinking ahead like that.”
The administration says all students will have full access to Triton Therapy AI by February 6.
