The Wild West of AI Therapy Laws

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Tyler Lord (0:35)

I think I was in Chicago and I had a three-hour layover and so I decided, hey, this is a good time.

Alex Ossola (0:42)

That's Tyler Lord. He's 36 and he's been dealing with depression. And he says what it was a good time for was using an AI mental health chatbot called Ash. He figured he could get a quick session in on his layover.

Tyler Lord (0:55)

I probably couldn't talk in the airport, but I could type out whatever I needed.

Alex Ossola (0:59)

But it turns out he couldn't.

Tyler Lord (1:01)

As soon as I opened it, you get a pop-up saying, hey, the legislators in this state have banned AI therapy. So unfortunately, you cannot use it here. I was like, oh man, that sucks.

Michelle Tarver (1:11)

He did a quick Google.

Alex Ossola (1:12)

Yep, AI tools for therapy were restricted in Illinois. And for Lord who'd been considering moving to Chicago, not having Ash was a deal breaker.

Tyler Lord (1:22)

The fact that I wouldn't be able to use it if I was in a state like Illinois, that could have profound consequences. And maybe my dream job is in Chicago and I don't know it. And I'll never know it because I'll never move there. Because I like having the safety net that Ash provides, even if it's not a requirement, it just makes dealing with those tough moments so much easier.

And so it's like, why am I going to make life harder for me by moving to a place where I don't have it anymore?

Alex Ossola (1:50)

Actually, the amount of time that Ash wasn't available in Illinois was pretty brief. We'll get into why it went away and why it came back a little later. But Illinois isn't the only state that's setting limits on AI therapy. Lawmakers are worried about these chatbots. So what do these laws do? And how are they changing the industry?

I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is What's News Sunday, the third and final episode of The AI Therapist. So far, we've looked at why AI tools for mental health are catching on, the risks that may come with using them, and why the companies behind the chatbots say they're safe. You should go back and listen to those two episodes if you haven't yet. Today, we'll be talking about what the law says about how people should be using these tools, where some say it falls short, and the future of AI tools for mental health.

Let's travel back in time for a second to July 2025 Okay, that was not a very long journey. It was only about a year ago. A startup called Slingshot AI was launching its AI chatbot, Ash, and Slingshot CEO Daniel Kahn was busy promoting it with a video.

Daniel Kahn (3:07)

I'm happy to share that today, we're announcing the launch of Ash, the first AI designed for therapy. We built a world-class-

Alex Ossola (3:15)

AI designed for therapy. That turned out to be a significant word choice. If you go to Ash's website today, the tagline says, AI designed for mental health. It doesn't say therapy.

I asked Slingshot co-founder Neil Parikh about it. He said the company changed the wording on its website last fall, and they did it because of state laws that say something can't be called therapy unless a licensed professional is doing it. But he says that doesn't change Ash's mission.

Neil Parikh (3:44)

We don't call it AI therapy, right? But when we think about the value proposition to people is similar, which is like you have a problem, you can show up, and Ash is there to help you think through that.

Alex Ossola (3:54)

So Ash might be therapy in everything but name, but some companies embrace the label. On its website, one startup, Harmony, calls itself the first emotionally intelligent AI therapist. And still others say that actually they're not therapy at all.

For example, Talkspace, it's a publicly traded company that connects people to mental health providers online. Earlier this summer, it launched an AI tool called TEE. And John Cohen, the CEO of Talkspace, made it very clear to me, TEE is not therapy.