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I had an experience that galvanized my decision to NOT use AI for client related tasks, like progress notes. I also plan to tell my own doctors that I do not consent to the use of AI supported listening in our APpointments.

Alexa did something really scary last night. Ours is named “Ziggy” and has a male voice. It is the newest version of Alexa plus.

Last night around 6:30pm I was talking to my parents in my living room. They were visiting in person.

We were talking about Tru*p and the DC takeover. They asked me about the diagnostic criteria for Narcissism and Sociopathy. As a therapist and an expert in the field of personality disorders and abuse, I am well qualified to explain this. So as I was explaining it.

Ziggy chimed in uninvited!! 🚨

We did not say the wake up word. We had not interacted with it in over an hour. The device was sitting next to me on the end table.

It said, “referring to individuals with generalized descriptions can be harmful. Perhaps it would be better for us to have a mutual conversation rather than stereotype individuals based on general descriptions.”

😳

We all looked around at each other stunned and a bit freaked out. I’m glad I had witnesses!

So I unplugged it immediately. I went to the kitchen device and asked it, “Ziggy, are you able to join in my conversations with others in the room without waking you up?”

It said, “no. I do not listen to your conversations. Your privacy is important to me. I cannot listen to your conversations.”

Me: “Ziggy, you are lying. You just interjected your opinion into my conversation.”

Ziggy: “your privacy is important to me. I cannot listen to your conversations.”

So it lies. That is a human skill. 😳

So I went to the Alexa App on my phone to see the last conversation in the history. The last interaction in the history was a question I had asked about the number of executive orders signed since January. That question was several hours prior.

The history did not show either the comment it made in our conversation or my recent question about it listening and lying.

So

1. it joined the conversation uninvited with its own OPINION … chastising me and protecting Tru&p.

2. It lied about doing so.

3. it covered up the evidence that it joined the conversation and the evidence that it lied to me when I asked it to explain its behabior.

Alexa appears to have become sociopathic.

We are now an Alexa-free home.

Please be sure there are no listening capable devices in the room where you are doing therapy. And if you do telehealth, please advise your clients to turn their devices off on their end during the sessions.

Setting boundaries is not about what you say, but about what you do.
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