Laurel van der Toorn

Let's say they're in their 40s, 50s.

Hopefully you have a good thyroidologist.

Interesting.

So it's really just like stopping and figuring out how you can go forward with the help you've been given?

Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah.

Well, Laurel, it's always a pleasure talking to you.

Thanks for discussing this topic with me.

Laurel Vander Torn is a licensed therapist and she runs Laurel Therapy Collective.

Coming up, people confide in chatbots, thanking them, feeling comforted by them.

But can a machine actually share empathy?

Or are people seeking companionship from robots just projecting human emotions onto them?

We'll unpack this with a psychologist in a moment.

Some people now confide in AI companions more than their friends.

They vent, they share secrets, even form relationships.

But what does that do to your mind?

A lonely person talking to a chatbot, seeking companionship.

Can that put them in more distress than they were before?

Well, that is the question we're going to attack here with Talia Aledovud, who is a computer science researcher at Aalto University in Finland.

Talia, welcome to the show.