Published9 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Chelsea BaileyBBC News, WashingtonA US organisation that supports people with eating disorders has suspended use of a chatbot after reports it shared harmful advice.The National Eating Disorder Association (Neda) recently closed its live helpline and directed people seeking help to other resources, including the chatbot.The AI bot, named “Tessa,” has been taken down, the association said. It will be investigating reports about the bot’s behaviour. In recent weeks, some social media users posted screenshots of their experience with the chatbot online. They said the bot continued to recommend behaviours like calorie restriction and dieting, even after it was told the user had an eating disorder. For patients already struggling with stigma around their weight, further encouragement to shed pounds can lead to disordered eating behaviours like bingeing, restricting or purging, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. “Every single thing Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder,” Sharon Maxwell, a weight inclusive activist, wrote in a widely viewed post on Instagram detailing an interaction with the bot, which she said told her to monitor her weight daily and maintain a calorie deficit. “If I had accessed this chatbot when I was in the throes of my eating disorder, I would not have gotten help.” In a statement shared with US media outlets, Neda CEO Liz Thompson said the advice the chatbot shared “is against our policies and core beliefs as an eating disorder organisation”. The association had planned to close its human-staffed helpline on 1 June 2023, and dismissed the staffers and volunteers who had maintained the information and treatment options helpline, which was launched in 1999. Officials quoted by NPR cited growing legal liabilities among the reasons for the switch. Is the world prepared for the coming AI storm?BBC Reel: Why we are still smarter than machinesNearly 10% of Americans will be diagnosed with an eating disorder in their lifetime. The disorders often thrive in secrecy and treatment can be costly, or unavailable in many parts of the country. Knowing this, Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University’s medical school, and her team set out to create a cognitive-behavioural tool that could offer prevention strategies for people with eating disorders. She told BBC News the chatbot she designed was based on proven interventions that have been found to be effective in reducing eating disorders and related behaviours. “It was never intended to be a replacement for the helpline,” she said. “It was an entirely different service.” Ms Fitzsimmons-Craft and her team gave the programme to Neda and a technology firm to deploy to clients last year. Since then, she said she believes a “bug” or flaw has been introduced into her original design to make the algorithm function more like recent AI tools like ChatGPT. (Neda has said the bot is not run by ChatGPT and does not have the same functions). “Our study absolutely never had that feature,” she said. “It is not the programme that we developed, tested and have shown to be effective.” The BBC has reached out to Neda and the health technology firm Cass for comment. Abbie Harper, a former helpline staffer, told BBC News that days after helpline staff officially unionised, workers were told they would no longer have jobs. “In the middle of our regular Friday staff meeting, the CEO and chairman of the board popped in to let us know we were being replaced with a chatbot and our jobs were being eliminated,” she said. “Our jaws hit the floor. We knew Tessa existed, mainly for folks that had body images issues, but it has these pre-programmed responses. It’s not a person who’s engaged in empathetic active listening to you.” Ms Harper, who is also recovering from an eating disorder, said talking to someone who shared her experience with the illness was a key step to her recovery and to combatting the stigma and shame she felt. A bot, she said, cannot offer the same support. More on this storyAI ‘godfather’ feels ‘lost’ over life’s workPublished1 day agoAI could lead to extinction, experts warnPublished2 days agoCan an AI chatbot be funnier than Stephen Colbert?Published3 May

Published10 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, The Washington Post via Getty ImagesBy Chelsea BaileyBBC News, WashingtonA US doctor who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old is facing a disciplinary hearing after speaking to media about the case. Indiana officials say Dr Caitlin Bernard violated her patient’s privacy after she spoke publicly about the girl’s treatment.Her lawyers argue she was acting on her duty to inform the public about the impact of policies like abortion bans. It is not immediately clear what punishment she might face.In July 2022, a month after a US Supreme Court ruling ended the nationwide guarantee to an abortion, the Indianapolis Star published a story detailing Dr Bernard’s account of treating a 10-year-old rape survivor. The child had travelled from neighbouring Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion. At the time, Ohio law prohibited abortion after six weeks of gestation. The case of the 10-year-old, who was a victim of child abuse, being denied an abortion quickly gained national attention. Pro-choice advocates – including President Joe Biden – used the case as an example of the impact of restrictive abortion bans.Later that month, an Ohio man was charged with raping the 10-year-old girl, who has remained unnamed. Last November, the Indiana State Attorney General’s office filed a complaint alleging that Dr Bernard failed to immediately report the abuse of the child, as required by state law, and to protect patient privacy. She testified that she followed her hospital’s policy by reporting the patient’s abuse to a social worker.”As a physician my role is to provide care for the patient no matter how she winds up in my care, it is not my job to investigate the crime,” she said.A hearing before the state Medical and Licensing Board is being held on Thursday. During the hearing, state officials sought to portray Dr Bernard as an “abortion activist” who shared details about the procedure with the media without first requesting permission from the child’s family. “Trust was violated when (Bernard) sought to further her own agenda,” said Deputy Attorney General Cory Voight of the accusations facing the physician. He said if the board agreed with the state’s complaint, Dr Bernard “has become unfit to practice”. Dr Bernard was at times emotional in her testimony as she discussed treating other underage patients who were victims of abuse and had sought abortions. She said she did not violate her patient’s privacy, or release protected health information in discussing the case with the Indianapolis Star. “I think that it’s incredibly important for people to understand the real-world impacts of the laws in this country, about abortion or otherwise,” Dr Bernard said. “I think that it’s important for people to know what patients will have to go through because of legislation that’s being passed.”At the conclusion of the hearing, members of the medical board are expected to vote on whether Dr Bernard’s conduct merits disciplinary action. Indiana’s state medical licencing board has the ability to suspend or revoke a medical licence or place the physician on probation. The attorney general’s initial complaint requests “appropriate disciplinary action” but stops short of demanding specific punishment. More on this storyMan held for raping US girl who was denied abortionPublished14 July 2022What happens now Roe v Wade has been overturned?Published29 June 2022

Published9 MayShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Chelsea BaileyBBC News, WashingtonA body of US medical experts is recommending women begin preventative breast cancer screening a decade earlier than under current guidelines.They recommend preventative mammograms starting at age 40 with regular screenings every other year.The draft guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPS) are now under review.Previous guidelines suggested most women start screening at age 50. The task force – made up of doctors and disease experts who look at research on the best way to prevent diseases – said that, if adopted, the new recommendations could save the lives of an additional 19% of American women. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among US women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and nearly 13% of American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetimes.The new screening guidelines are especially crucial for black women, who are “40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women”, the task force said on Tuesday. “Ensuring Black women start screening at age 40 is an important first step, yet it is not enough to improve the health inequities we face related to breast cancer,” Vice Chair Dr Wanda Nicholson said in a statement.The new draft guidelines would apply to women who have an average risk for breast cancer, or a family history of the disease. It also includes women with other risk factors like dense breast tissue, a condition that can both increase the risk of cancer and make it harder to detect using mammograms. The guidelines would not, however, apply to women who have a genetic risk of breast cancer, such as the BRCA1 genetic mutation. This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.If adopted, the new recommendations set the US apart from countries like the UK and Canada, which recommend screenings begin at 50. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) considers cancer risk for women under 50 to be “generally very low”, according to Cancer Research UK, and women are invited to screen every three years. In Canada, screenings are not recommended for women aged 40-49. Instead, mammograms are recommended for women aged 50-69 “every two to three years”.Breast cancer incidence in the United States has risen over the last four decades, according to a study published last October in the American Cancer Society Journal. But death rates have fallen since their peak in 1989 thanks to advances in screening and treatment, the study found. Women diagnosed with breast cancer in the US have a 90% survival rate, according to the National Cancer Institute. But those survival rates shift dramatically if you are a minority in the US. Aggressive breast cancer hits black women harderA recent study found that, compared to white women, minority women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced-stage breast cancer.The American College of Radiology has called for “earlier and more intensive” screening for high-risk women and called for women to have a breast cancer “risk assessment” by age 25 to determine if early preventative screening is needed. “Our worry is that if now the USPS task force says (to screen at) 40 and every two years, we have concerns that’s going to lead to even more disparities between whites and blacks in breast cancer diagnosis,” said chair of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Commission, Dr Stamatia Destounis. Black women in the US are 42% more likely to die of their breast cancer “despite pretty much equal incidence rates between whites and blacks” and are also much more likely to be diagnosed with later stage cancer, she said. The US Preventative Services Task Force guidelines will now enter a period of public comment that will remain open until 5 June.More on this storyAggressive breast cancer hits black women harderPublished26 October 2022The breast cancer surgeon who got breast cancerPublished20 April 2019Contraceptive mini pill breast cancer risk revealedPublished21 March