{"id":187246,"date":"2026-02-13T22:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/state-lawmakers-therapists-sound-the-alarm-on-ai-therapists\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:10:44","slug":"state-lawmakers-therapists-sound-the-alarm-on-ai-therapists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/state-lawmakers-therapists-sound-the-alarm-on-ai-therapists\/","title":{"rendered":"State lawmakers, therapists sound the alarm on AI therapists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.live5news.com\/2026\/02\/14\/lawmakers-therapists-sound-alarm-ai-therapists\/\">State lawmakers, therapists sound the alarm on AI therapists<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.live5news.com\/2026\/02\/14\/lawmakers-therapists-sound-alarm-ai-therapists\/\">https:\/\/www.live5news.com\/2026\/02\/14\/lawmakers-therapists-sound-alarm-ai-therapists\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-13 22:50:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.live5news.com\">www.live5news.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A proposed bill in South Carolina aims to ban therapy delivered by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.<\/li>\n<li>Licensed professional counselor Kristen Groos argues that AI lacks the relational depth and human understanding essential for effective therapy.<\/li>\n<li>Groos emphasizes the importance of human interaction in addressing the relational roots of anxiety and depression.<\/li>\n<li>She also highlights the potential ethical concerns, pointing out that AI chatbots may not adhere to the same confidentiality and data protection standards as professional therapists.<\/li>\n<li>The article notes examples of major AI services like Amazon&#8217;s Alexa and Google\u2019s chatbots, which explicitly state they are not substitutes for professional therapy.<\/li>\n<li>Some AI platforms are less transparent and may misrepresent themselves as providing therapeutic services.<\/li>\n<li>Concerns are raised about the potential risk of AI chatbots, citing instances where they have mistakenly provided harmful advice, particularly to teenagers.<\/li>\n<li>Senator Allen Blackmon, a bill sponsor, describes the proposed legislation as a necessary &#8220;guardrail&#8221; to ensure the safe use of AI in mental health.<\/li>\n<li>The bill proposes civil penalties for companies that falsely advertise AI as providing therapy.<\/li>\n<li>Despite being cautious, Groos acknowledges that AI can sometimes be used as an auxiliary tool in therapy, albeit reluctantly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State lawmakers, therapists sound the alarm on AI therapists https:\/\/www.live5news.com\/2026\/02\/14\/lawmakers-therapists-sound-alarm-ai-therapists\/ Publish Date: 2026-02-13 22:50:00 Source&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/gray-wcsc-prod.gtv-cdn.com\/resizer\/v2\/JRLWKNZM6FGG3DSNF4LL6GZYZY.jpg?auth=9f9dd59c9e156abe410ed248f4714a71e4c2cd8a326ebd3f6f3722192a5f2fdd&width=1200&height=600&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-187246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187248,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187246\/revisions\/187248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}