@tocapturethisvoice on Tumblr

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#10 years since my mum died and it still feels like yesterday #i miss her even more as time goes by #cant believe i've lived without her for so long #but honestly i haven't really been living... just going through the motions #hopefully that will change now that i've started therapy and anti-depressants #but no matter what i'll never be completely whole again #there'll always be a hole in my heart #yikes this is too personal. don't mind me

tocapturethisvoice reblogged

bakwaaas

how am i doing? oh I’m fine except i’m in a constant state of nostalgia and sentimentality over everyone I’ve ever loved and every age I’ve ever been and every phase of my life and every job I’ve worked and I’m constantly missing people and places that I can never go back to but it’s cool it’s fine

tocapturethisvoice reblogged

isaksbestpillow

animentality

#fuck the grind #it's a lie sold to us by capitalism #so we can be good little workers

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saw-x

baifengxis

SOFIA WYLIE & JOSHUA BASSETT in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THE MUSICAL THE SERIES 4.05

#this scene changed my life #hsmtmts #ricky x gina

tocapturethisvoice reblogged

isaksbestpillow

viridianriver

KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users' Mental Health Crises for "Content"

I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.

Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)

But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.

I couldn't even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I'm glad I stopped to read, because:

What you say on there won't be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn't even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)

Also, what you say on there? Is now...
Koko's intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
Publicly performing or displaying your "content" (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
Sell / share this "content" with other businesses

Any harm you come to using Koko? That's on you.
And Koko won't take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)

I was curious about their business model. They're a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They're also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)

They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn't find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of "People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find". Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.

So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.

(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don't read if you're not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)

auressea

A Mental Health App Tested ChatGPT on Its Users

Koko used GPT-3 to counsel 4,000 people but shut the test down because "it felt kind of sterile." Users rated the AI responses highly. Cue t

Gizmodo

Discord's KokoBot Triggers an Ethics Controversy

An experiment in using chatbots to dispense mental-health counseling raised questions about ethics. Rob Morris, cofounder and CEO of Koko...

Discord's KokoBot Triggers an Ethics Controversy

thatsmimi

Kokobot is incredibly predatory and exploitative. I wrote a post about how it exploits minors' empathy and gamifies "giving mental health advice", resulting in an unregulated mess that can only do harm to teens' mental health in the long run.

There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.