Dr. Robot: AI will solve your problems in an hour for less than ten bucks!

First there were rent-a-cops, then there were drop-in health clinics (doc-in-a-boxes), and now there’s MindMentor.com, your robot psychologist friend. I stumbled upon this friendly-looking health professional in a press release here. His website makes a lot of promises:

• He’s an electronic psychologist.
• He’s always available.
• He’s very discreet.
• He’s fast.
• You can afford him.

Um, wow. “His average solution percentage is 47 percent in just one session!” Most PhDs and PsyDs would be thrilled with such high success rates! And he will work with you for just 4.95 euros, “a very modest financial investment in your personal well being!”

This is a little bit scary, right? Artificial intelligence has a long long way to come (remember the AIM buddy “smarterchild”?), and I don’t need a syntax-challenged computer program telling me what to do with my mind and life. Browsing WebMD is one thing, but for situations that require a professional, this is no substitute.

I searched for blog posts on the topic (as I always do) and came across very few (usually none – seriously, blogosphere, why is no one else blogging about psychology?!), but here’s one blogger who, like me, finds the thing a bit impersonal and disturbing.

Let’s end with an uber-creepy screen shot: