It doesn’t matter if people prefer the AI therapist. If you ask whether people prefer a doctor who gives them any drug they request without question, the answer

It doesn’t matter if people prefer the AI therapist. If you ask whether people prefer a doctor who gives them any drug they request without question, the answer will be yes, too. This is not in the public interest, though. Of course, questions of efficacy haven’t been answered, but even if it seemed efficacious, it is still irreducibly irresponsible. It is literally irresponsible because AI cannot be held responsible for its acts, and neither will its creators (although they should). AI is prone to wild breakdowns, in a way that humans are not, and only very large and long studies could assess that empirically. And even if you did such a study, it would apply only to that model of LLM using that exact prompt set, and those particular people with those problems.