Just-In-Time-Training (JITT) / Noni Help
Just-In-Time Training (JITT): Limited and Careful AI to Empower Human Connection and Support
On 7 Cups, our goal is to provide the tools and and the space for people to support each other through their suffering. We help people through active listening, group support, therapy, growth paths, mindfulness, forum posts and so much more. Over the last 10 years, we have learned so much and made so much progress toward this mission. Currently, we provide 11 interventions to help people better cope with and overcome mental health challenges. The power of scaled up support with the help of technology, on a global scale, has been clearly demonstrated by our compassionate community which continues to evolve.
We want to decrease human suffering for free or at little cost. We believe in mental health for all. Anyone that needs help should be able to receive it regardless of language, location, or financial status.
Active listening is the core foundation of our mental health for all vision. It is a set of principles that turns communication into honest and empathic conversation paving the way for support in our daily lives. This leads to human connection on a new level, one that supports healing and wellbeing.
When we provide this support, however, it is sometimes easy to get stuck. For example, a member says something that is difficult to respond to, and you want to respond in a caring way, but you are just not sure what to say. The member also knows you care for them and want to help them. When this happens, we can freeze or maybe we say something that isn’t super helpful. It can take the conversation in a direction that is less healing.
Another important thing to know about the skill of listening is that it is normally distributed. There are some people that are excellent listeners, most people are average listeners, and then some people that struggle to be good listeners. The vast majority of listeners want to be good listeners. If a person signs up on this platform and goes through the work of training, as a volunteer, they are clearly here to be the best listener they can be. But given the distribution, having varied tools can only help.
With the rise of AI over the last decade, we began to think more about the role of this technology in facilitating human connection, healing, and growth. Noni, our AI chatbot launched in 2014, was trained and informed by our community and maintained our values. By 2017, Noni was able to greet users, participate in a group discussion while uniting group members, as well as contribute with positive humor. And, more recently, Noni just went through another series of iterations.
With the latest wave of AI models, we began probing a question that could update what our current support system looked like. What if the latest technology could help everyone wanting to train to be a better listener? We know that anyone who volunteers to listen and trains with us is already very dedicated. This motivation is usually followed by a long pathway of training at the 7 Cups Academy, but what support could we give these active listeners to start their journey right away? Listening is a skill that we can improve on continuously, and so learning something new every day stands as ground for ongoing practice.
There is a sort of training called “Just-In-Time Training” (JITT). This is training that provides the person with the exact information they need at exactly the right moment. Contrast this with taking a course and then remembering and applying what you learned in that course 2 or 3 months later. Both types of training are needed to help people grow professionally.
In the near future, new listeners that want help getting unstuck with just-in-time training, will have the option of clicking a “Noni help” button that says “suggest a response.” AI will then draft a response to the member’s message and drop it in the listener’s message composition area. The listener can then edit the response and hit send when ready.
AI can help us do a better job of decreasing suffering for people that are in pain by empowering human connections based on the core principles of active listening for support. And better yet, this application of AI can be an ethical demonstration of a key debate running through everyone’s mind: Can Humans and AI work together? Collaboration helps everyone move forward together, and with the 7 Cups model in mind, we aim to set an ethical example on how to use AI to productively scale up emotional support.
What Led Us To Need Just-In-Time Training?
Up to this point, our focus has been on foundational training methodologies and tools, which we have developed in the Academy.
We have now trained 500,000 listeners. Collectively, those listeners, and some members, have completed 932,544 courses, and we have helped millions of people. That is a remarkable amount of training! We are almost at 1 million courses completed and the best part is that all of this has been done for free. We do dozens of other things as well to increase the quality of listening on the platform. Our community leaders work very hard on this front. We have come very far, but we have a lot of work left to do.
Each week I get PMs about how much a listener has helped a member or a note that people found 7 Cups and we helped them turn their life around. These are my favorite messages to get. They make me proud of the work we do.
I also get messages from people that did not feel helped. They wish we would have done a better job. Mental health is a complex and complicated issue, and while we have made significant strides, I know that we have a long way to go. Every quarter we do better, but there is always room for improvement.
We are now adding these just-in-time training tools as a way to better equip our listeners and to help integrate learning from courses into real-time conversational support.
The Problem is the Path
At 7 Cups, we believe that the problem is the path - facing challenges helps us find solutions that enable us to stay on the right path.
As we conceptualized this tool, we had to ask ourselves the following questions to ensure what we are doing is as helpful as possible to different groups of people.
Should we use AI to provide just-in-time training to help listeners?
Should members be able to access listeners that are receiving just-in-time AI training support?
Should members have the option of chatting with listeners where they know that the listener cannot and is unable to use just-in-time AI supported listening?
The answer to all of the above is “Yes.” People can choose to engage in AI training and support or choose not to. It is entirely up to them.
Towards Better Active Listening (Humans + AI)
Just-In-Time-Training will be available to all new listeners and some leaders to help with testing. When a member connects with a listener, the member will be notified that the new listener has JITT as an option in a pinned message at the top of the chat.
When a new listener utilizing JITT clicks on the lightbulb icon/button, the AI creates the response through querying something called a large language model. You can think of this as a program that has ingested most of the human text on the Internet. They then convert all of those words and sentences into numbers and then use formulas to predict the right string of words that offers a strong response to the member message. We have informed the formulas with what it means to be an effective active listener, so that the suggestions are fully compliant to 7 Cups protocols as well as conduct policies.
We will very likely limit the use of this tool after a certain amount of time, because we see it as a tool to help us strengthen our active listening and empathy muscles. We do not want to become overly dependent on it. We do not yet know what the optimal amount of time is for people to access it. Our initial plan is to roll it out with new listeners, learn, and then expand to more listeners if it makes sense.
Also, listeners cannot copy and paste the response. We have disabled this capability and they are prompted to use it for inspiration, but to make sure they send the message in their own words, because human to human connections is key.
Leaders are also helping us test JITT so we can learn more quickly. If you are a listener that has been on the platform and would also like to help us test JITT, then please sign up here. If you are a member, chatting with an older listener or leader, and you want to see if they have JITT turned on, then look at the pinned messages at the top of the chat to verify.
There is lots for us to learn over the next several weeks.. I’ll keep you all posted.
Community Collaboration and Benefits
It is important to note that this just-in-time training when stuck feature will need tweaking. That is why we are implementing this in a very careful way. Listeners are primary and human to human connection is central. If a listener is stuck and clicks that “suggest a response” button, but is not happy with the message, then they are free to ignore, delete or revise it. While our admin team, and professional experts, have been working hard to train the just-in-time training to provide the best suggestions, we will be collaborating with the community and using all feedback to continue to tweak our JITT feature.
We have been thinking about AI and mental health since 2014. That is when we introduced Noni. I believe that humans + AI will enable us to decrease suffering. AI will only reach its full potential when it is implemented in a way that helps humans reach their full potential. And, I believe that members and listeners should have the ability to choose to interact with AI as much as they like - a lot, or little, or not at all (just like what we do with Noni now). Both of these can be true. They are not mutually exclusive.
We have always said that we use technology to facilitate human connection, healing and growth. Technology - like a website or app - is a medium much like a film or book. You can use the medium of film or text for good or bad. The same is true for technology and is true of the technology that we call AI. On 7 Cups, technology is a facilitator of human connection and is never a replacement. Listeners are and will always be primary (see this post from 2016).
7 Cups is a special place for a myriad of reasons. We are a community of the best people on the planet. The people with the biggest hearts that go the extra mile to help one another. Many of us are old souls. We’ve been through some ups and downs and we are real about how life unfolds. We don’t pretend to have it all figured out. We know healing is a process.
The Future of Active Listening is the Best Future of AI
As a reminder, AI or other advances in technology will not replace any of our systems but will help in our efficiency. As technology evolves, we continue to invent tools that make our lives better - our growth paths are an example. Now, we have hundreds of growth paths filtered with topics, but how can a listener recommend an activity, prompt or tool for a unique person as a means of support? It would be a great next step to have ways to personalize our wellness journey - and AI will do just that. It is a paintbrush that respects unique human contexts, and as we embark on this path, we will find that it helps turn our needs into a reality.
Please share ideas, thoughts, reflections, and concerns below. I’ll do my best to answer them. Let’s also keep adding here or in some other dedicated section of the forum so we can figure these things out together.
Thank you!
To sign up to test JITT you can fill this form
@GlenM Whew, that was a long read. But just to be short and honest, as I was reading I was thinking to myself this is something I could not get behind just because I'm a creature of habit. But I continued reading and kept an open mind. I don't ever use the guides in 1-1 with members just so I can stand out. I never want it to be repetitive for the member when they engage with me and then the next. That's just me because I never want to seem "robotic" and that's why I interact with each member differently based on who they are and comfort level. But I would be lying if I said that sometimes coming up with the "right" words is an easy thing to do. I can't even tell you the number of times I typed something just to end up back spacing it and write something else. So for Noni to be able to come up with a supportive response that listeners can use to aid them in what to say, that's good. Mind you, I was thinking closed minded at first about "ohhhh, I could never use this" and thinking how it would make things less personal between member and listener and how empathy could easily fly out the window just replying an a generated message. However, when I got to the part about not being able to copy, cut, and paste...that is where I smiled. I am so glad you put enough thought and love into this to have considered that. You have my support on this. I can't say if I will use it but I'm definitely open to it. ♡
@YourCaringConfidant thank you very much for this thoughtful, open-minded, and warm response! ❤️ And thanks for seeing the love we put into it. We spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about this because exactly as you outlined - there are so many nuances to consider and it really has to be additive and helpful. You captured it here:
"But I would be lying if I said that sometimes coming up with the "right" words is an easy thing to do. I can't even tell you the number of times I typed something just to end up back spacing it and write something else. So for Noni to be able to come up with a supportive response that listeners can use to aid them in what to say, that's good."
That is the key point that we are trying to help with. We all get stuck and this helps us get unstuck in a careful, compassionate, and relatively quick manner.
Thanks again and if you try it out please let us know what you think :)
Incredible work and thoughtfulness and I love 💕 that it will be disclosed and tailored so you still make it your own the responses.
Personally I don’t feel I would use it but I can see the interest to test it out …. Definitely keep an open mind as members and listeners too.
This community continues to amaze me and I love helping out in forumland.
I love reading your updates always a lot of good things happening here at 7cups. I appreciate the work of those who make that happen. 💕💕💕💕 Thank you! 😎😎😎
@SunShineAlwaysGrateful thanks for the kind words and - as your name implies - gratitude :). I'm thankful for you too! Thanks for bringing encouragement around the community ✨.
JITT will definitely not be for everyone. If you sign up to test it and try it out, then please let me know what you think. Thank you!
@YourCaringConfidant Hi there, I'm just curious - you mentioned in your comment that there are "guides in 1-1 with members" to aid in the chat... what are those you're referring to?
@Solome24
Hi, I believe @YourCaringConfidant is referring to the listener tips that pop up during chats. They're not guidance on the chat itself so much as little pointers and bits of info for listeners.
@Heather225 Thank you for tagging me! I did not see the others. Yes, I was meaning those little pointer tips that appear suggesting what to say or talk about to help the listener. Sorry, poor choice of wording on my end. Thanks Heather for tagging me so it brought this back to my attention.
@YourCaringConfidant Sorry, I just wasn't sure what you were referring to. Thanks for clarifying!
@GlenM This is so interesting and such a good idea ⭐️ I can’t wait to test it!
@sophielations we would love your thoughts! Feel welcome to sign up with this form
@GlenM
Amazing news, Glen!
This is great! This is huge!
Thank you for all the effort that went into developing this state-of-the-art new support tool!
I think that what's most important is supporting the best possible the most people at no cost. This mission comes first, and any (ethical) tool that helps accomplish this mission shares its noble and compassionate nature.
Going to the basics, as you know, the great psychotherapist Carl Rogers, (one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology along with Abraham Maslow), found out that sometimes he couldn't come up with something insightful ("technically professional" as a therapist) to answer his patients. But they felt relieved and the session was helpful for them anyway. As Rogers said "I discovered that simply listening to my client, very attentively, was an important way of being helpful. So when I was in doubt as to what I should do in some active way, I simply listened."
Later he developed ways to intensify this effect, to make sure his patients felt listened and called these techniques "Active Listening".
My take is that the therapeutic effect of Active Listening, the technique we practice in 7 Cups, is the result mostly of feeling heard (in both a standard and in a deep way) by a fellow human being. And Active Listening techniques are means to ensure they feel heard, validated, understood, etc. to the highest possible degree.
Even providing insights and making connections helps with this ("Oh, this person has really listened, is really understanding my predicament, they really care").
This (maybe too long) digression leads me to two main points:
First, there must be a real bone-and-flesh human being listening. A fellow human capable of suffering, subject to all the predicaments of the human condition, etc. A bot won't make it. We need that another person has heard us, has felt human emotions because of what we said. This software still can't do.
Second, the answers don't need to be great insights. Just feedback that reassures the first point has been met. Feedback that a real human has heard us and our words caused emotions and thoughts in their mind. Insights might reinforce it even further, but they are not needed, IMHO.
Sooo...
This mode of AI assistance to Listeners accomplishes these goals, I think. A real human has listened to me. And I received an answer that reassures me it really happened.
Now, a word of caution. People are already aware, and there is some mild scare that AI is starting to be used everywhere. And they don't like it. I have been asked at the start of a chat "Are you a bot?" (which led to funny conversations). They are alert that they might be chatting with a bot and they don't like that.
So I think it is very important how this functionality is announced and presented widely to make absolutely clear this is not the case.
In this line, the idea that this is some kind of "on-the-job training" is a great way to put it. I have been treated in hospitals by trainee doctors under the supervision of a professor, and I understood that it is ok that someone learns at the same time they perform a necessary task. Most people do.
Another good point of this AI tool is that it discourages copy-paste behavior and encourages using it as inspiration to break "writer's block" and write a message in their own words. This can't be stressed enough. It must feel that a human is answering, even with typos and grammatical mistakes.
Lastly, maybe the system might benefit from being tested (and then fine tuned) first by experienced and good listeners. A window might appear with the suggested answer for each message, and the Listener might give it a simple score in an easy checkbox, or a "like" ("heart" would be more Cups fitting).
The need for emotional support is huge, there is much pain and suffering in the world, so scaling up, being able to reach out and offer support of the best possible quality to more and more people is an act of love and compassion of the greatest order.
7 Cups is already a great contribution made possible by advanced technology.
In my humble opinion, this AI functionality will be a great step forward in the same direction, that, as it has been designed, won't diminish the human-to-human nature of the interactions that 7 Cups offers, so crucial for its effectiveness, and might help boost the quality of support and allow scaling up significantly, to achieve the noble and compassionate goal of reaching millions of people that badly need emotional support they can't get any other way.
Welcome, JIIT! You are loved here!
@HealingTalk thank you for sharing this very thorough analysis and for bolding the key points. There is a lot to unpack here. First, I'm glad and thankful that you think we are using the tool appropriately and that it enhances and does not take away from human connection. I agree with your analysis. Second, Rogers was spot on about just connecting - how powerful it is. The person that cares for you with the twinkle in their eye - when you know they love you or care for you even if you don't really know them - is much more powerful than most traditional mental health interventions out there. The connection heals :). Third, we have the checkbox on the response and also the x, so we'll be closely tracking what are good messages and which ones are not so good. We'll publish those results too. Last, I'd be very thankful if you tried it out and shared your thoughts here. I think you've got a real handle on all of this and have thought through this a lot, so your feedback would be very welcome ✨.
@GlenM
Yes, Glen, I do think your approach to benefit Cups from AI is wise. AI offers much potential, but it is particularly tricky here, and IMHO you have found the right balance on this razor's edge.
I see AI cropping up in mindless and useless ways in all the online tools I use. You did not rush it. Devising this JIIT scheme, impactful but with no adverse effects was the result of much thought for sure.
Regarding Active Listening, it was such a brilliant idea to bring to the masses through the Internet this powerful therapeutic method, that doesn't require professional studies but is as effective as talk therapy in most cases. You are loved by zillions for this, but you also deserve a recognition as a scientific advancement and a contribution to world mental health from APA, WHO, or similar institutions. I am serious about this.
I have submitted the JIIT access form and will be using it and providing feedback in the next few days.
All the best!
@HealingTalk thank you for your kind words :). One of the things I love most about 7 Cups is that we get to build it together. I sometimes think of it as a book that we are all writing together. Or a cathedral. Literally millions of people have helped us build it. I can't take a lot of credit for it, but I am thankful that I get to work on it alongside all of you. I feel that the ability to spend a good chunk of my life in this manner is a gift. I love it so much, that the older I get, the more mindful I am of the limited time I have left (that is for another post!).
Thanks for checking it out and honest feedback very welcome!
@GlenM
I think the credit and merit in two phases. First, the embryonic phase, having the idea, improving it and implementing. Before that was nothing. Starting is an homeric effort and achievement. Devising it as an open system, a feedback loop intended to involve many people was brilliant. Feedback loops can be extremely powerful, and become huge. You have full credit for this, hands down. No big bang, no universe.
Then, as intended from the start, people join, and because it is such a good thing, many great people put a lot of effort. Still, the organization needs guidance and a core management team. Again, a lot of effort goes into this guidance through many (some challenging) circumstances, like in your white-waters kayak parable. You deserve a lot of credit for steering the kayak all these years (yes, this is a 10th Birthday celebration post 😃).
And then, there are myriad things done all the time in this organization by volunteers as well as the Admin team. Mostly emotional support activities, but also content creation, managerial tasks, devising new initiatives, etc. There is a huge collective time and effort invested by past and present members to make 7 Cups such a powerful Community in terms of emotional support. Each one deserves credit for this. Collectively, tons of gratitude.
It all started with a vision, a great project design, and a lot of effort by a good man, ten years ago...
@GlenM
Whoa, this is such a cool concept!!! Sometimes I really struggle with finding the right words and I feel less confident in myself especially because English is not my first language. I absolutely love helping people and being there for them. Having a little support from AI can make a lot of difference for me and help me feel more confident. I can't wait to try this out!!
@wildflower999 awesome! yes, you nailed it - this is a great confidence building tool. When you are really trying, and you put your heart out there, but don't quite land what the person needs it can make you feel less confident. This should help with that. And excellent point on english as a second language. I hadn't thought of that. Please sign up for it on the above link and let me know what you think!
@GlenM
Yes it will help with the language barrier. But I'm a bit worried about some people misusing it. People may overly depend on it and I think it might affect everyone. I found 7 cups when I was around 14 because I wanted to talk to a human who'd validate my feelings and provide emotional support, someone who actually cares. I don't think AI can ever replace human to human interaction.
So while I can see that it could help from a language point of view, I hope there are limits, rules and guidelines for the integration of AI.
@wildflower999 very glad you found us and 100% in agreement. We are being careful and thoughtful about this because we share your concern; it will be limiting to just 90 messages for the first month for new listeners. When this is fully implemented I think only about 5-10% of listeners will have access to AI support; and 90-95% will not, so it'll be very limited. This could change if more listeners want access and/or we find it to provide much better help to people, but right now it seems it'll be a small fraction of the overall listener population.
@GlenM the appeal of this site is that ure basically connecting with an actual person, i hope this doesnt replace listeners or use data from user without their permission
im quite disappointed
@feefus thanks for the feedback; we've addressed both of these items in the post. I know it is long, but we wanted to be detailed about it. 7 Cups IS about human to human connection. AI in this context is used to help us when stuck or struggling with listening or providing support to another person - to enable better human to human connection.
@feefus
Hi feefus.
You can also see a bit of my meeting with AI as a L here at 7Cups written here some min. ago.
@GlenM sounds helpful! I am thinking, if it could be mandatory for new listeners for their first month. The first month would give enough training [given they took a minimum required number of chats in their first month] for them to continue their listener journey independently.
Even though helpful, I do feel a bit concerned if it could train the listeners to become too formal /too distanced /too methodical and we basically would be preparing more Nonis with human bodies. Like injecting Noni programming into humans😛
So a combination of human live chat support help [referring to the quality queue idea] and JITT technology may just work.
I liked reading these [very smart and sweet]:
-
Just-In-Time Training (JITT): Limited and Careful AI to Empower Human Connection and Support
- We will very likely limit the use of this tool after a certain amount of time, because we see it as a tool to help us strengthen our active listening and empathy muscles. We do not want to become overly dependent on it.
- Also, listeners cannot copy and paste the response. We have disabled this capability and they are prompted to use it for inspiration, but to make sure they send the message in their own words, because human to human connections is key.
- When a member connects with a listener, the member will be notified that the new listener has JITT as an option in a pinned message at the top of the chat.
- I believe that humans + AI will enable us to decrease suffering. AI will only reach its full potential when it is implemented in a way that helps humans reach their full potential.
- We are a community of the best people on the planet. The people with the biggest hearts that go the extra mile to help one another. [I'd love this to become more and more true and we make the community such an environment where the best of humans and humanity is brought about -the path towards it is truly inspiring and healing.]
@Fristo thank you for the comment and for sharing the differing perspective. Very much appreciated! Right now we have it set at 90 messages for new listeners per month. We will likely limit it to just a month, but we are not sure the optimal amount of time to help listeners. If it ends up being 6 weeks then we'll bump it back a bit. The good news is that we'll be able to figure this out within a couple of months.
And great point on Noni being too formal. In parallel, we are also developing our own model that is based on our best listeners. This version will be much more informal and will deeply reflect the essence of 7 Cups. We hope to have a version we can test in late August and then something we can share with others to start testing in September.
And thank you for bulleting the points that stood out to you. I know this post is very long, but we tried to cover most things and I agree heartily with the green part of your message.
Thank you! ✨
@Fristo
I just want to reply to the first part of your reply about making it mandatory and want to tag @GlenM in this too
I am very concerned about how Listeners are allowed on here with very minimal training and I do think it allows a lot of people on here that don't have the best intentions to slip through the cracks.
What I believe is making it mandatory for new Listeners to sign up with a mentor and that mentor "sign off" on the Listener before they can go off on their own. I think this would allow mentors to weed out Listeners who are here for the wrong reasons.
I don't believe allowing Noni to guide Listeners is the best approach to this as the replies are going to become very robotic. Members already worry about listeners being bots (I get asked almost daily) and I definitely do believe this could make the members feel like they are not really being heard by a person.
This is a very condensed version of my opinion because if I wrote out all that I believe, it would probably be longer than the original thread itself
@beck1 I hear your concerns here. We have spent a lot of time, especially in the early days, conceptualizing leadership positions and how to help people connect with mentors. We've made a lot of progress over the years, but we can definitely do more. Let's put our heads together on how we can create easy to follow programs to help this process along. We can do the same with helping listeners better access peer support as well. If you are up for helping us out here, then please PM me and I'll follow up :).
With regards to the robotic piece, I think if you try her out you'll see that the language is not too formal and is validating. We are going to create our own model too which will help make this better, but that won't be ready for testing until early September. We have baked in headline that sits over the message that says, "Be inspired, but be sure to write this in your own words." They also cannot copy and paste. I think all of this helps with the listener sounding like robots fear and I'm sure we'll learn more about what we can do as well.
It is very early, but we've worked with several key community members on this to more carefully evaluate things and their responses have been better than I expected or hoped for. Early signs are pretty positive, but that doesn't mean we stop keeping a close eye on things. We need to have these types of discussions to iterate on how it best fits into our culture and to make iterations along the way to make sure it is aligned with our values as a community.
i thought at one point this was a site for people helping people but really its just free testing for an ai bot
@prismaticlotus this is 100% not the case; 7 Cups is all about people helping one another. The good news is - and I hope this remains true for years and decades ahead - is that humans much prefer talking to other humans. Think about customer service. Most of us want to talk to another human as quickly as we can; that is b/c the bot isn't anywhere as helpful as a human. Now, in keeping with customer service, sometimes the customer support person doesn't know the answer. If the customer support person has access to a bot that does know the answer, then the person can use the bot to better help the person on the other side of the conversation. You can see the same idea here.
@GlenM I definitely understand the concept here. However there are people trained on Cups to help with things like this, like Chat Support and Mentors. Usually if a listener hops into Listener Support Room or Teen Listener Room (depending on age of listener) they can find someone for chat support. If not, there is a form that they can fill out.
When we have new listeners, I believe that we need to be educating them a little more on the resources that are available here for them as most people joining aren't aware of things like Peer Support, Chat Support and the Listener Support Room.
@GlenM by that reasoning it would be best if the customer service person could rely on a human supervisor for the appropriate answer. i also reject the comparison to customer service where here there is no product being sold. i can find another place to support people in need an i wish you all the best with the robots
@GlenM
I believe it is not at all a matter of looking for answers...
It is about support.
Just allowing space for the other person and asking enabling questions is enough.
1-1 chats are meant to be a safe and private space where a person is putting trust into another person.
When talking to a person I simply do not wish that they be asking AI bot what to do/what to say. And I am sure many will agree with this.
I also do not expect the other person to be super knowledgeable about a given topic, for instance.
Moreover, listeners are not supposed to disclose about conversations they have with members.
This includes not feeding info to AI bots.
If a member wanted to engage in a "conversation" with AI they are free to use Noni or any other bot.
But for real, please, do not mix the two (human+AI)...
And always give informed OPT OUT options to users.
Please give
to both members and listeners
a clear option to Opt Out from any AI.
Consent is needed:
without it
gathering and/or using
any data from users
is against the law.
@Myosotis17 please read the post above for details and know that we consulted extensively with our lawyers on how to do this in the best and most appropriate way. We are being very clear about this because we too believe that people - all of us - should know when we are interacting with a person that has no access to AI and also provide the option to interact with people that do have AI support as an option.
@Myosotis17
Hi, Myo!
Nice to see you here!
I think the issue is not if this is legal. Any well-run organization will do a thorough legal auditing and analysis of its systems. Nobody wants to have legal problems, particularly in the US.
The issue is about ethics and trust, I think.
Every character you have ever typed here went through 7 Cups computers and software. Even more, some software checks for phrases that might go against the rules.
They have a system that makes unavailable what you write on their computers to anyone in the organization. Only the software has access for these purposes. It's like an online password manager . GoogIe, for example, has one that millions use all the time. GoogIe stores the passwords but no one in GoogIe has access to them.
You have trusted 7 Cups and their system for long because you believed they are ethical and would not use the information they receive for unethical purposes. They have put in place systems that incapacitate them to do that, like Ulysses had their sailors (system) tie him to the mast to immobilize him and impede him to do crazy things.
This AI is an extension of this system. No one will read what you write. They will read what the AI system writes and see how it was evaluated by the Listener, without knowing you were involved in that conversation.
They will receive feedback like this:
AI: "It seems you are going through a lot!" Listener: "Good answer"
No one will know you were involved, nor know what you were talking about.
If you trusted Cups for so long, you can continue trusting them now.
I hope this contributes to reassure you and continue participating here with confidence, peace of mind and trust.
See you soon, Myo!
Tagging also @GlenM
@Saly33 thank you for sharing your experience. Yes, thankfully, many of the AI companies like OpenAI through ChatGPT, refer people to 7 Cups. I think that is because they are mostly trained on the Internet and we have tens of thousands of sites that refer people to us. There might be some other reason, but I'm not sure what it is.
And I can resonate with your words - soul, feeling, human - 100%. That is the best stuff and, I believe, essential to healing, but also a strong and compassionate community. We are using AI to support those goals, so that we can heal, grow, and learn to better care for one another.
@GlenM
@Helgafy Hi there, that sounds very unfortunate. Words hold value and power, and it seems like this listener had an overall unprofessional conduct. Please note this listener was not using JITT and also seems to be violating some essential guidelines such as asking you to go offsite. I recommend reporting them and I really hope you find that our JITT initiative is specifically tailored for listener quality and training support.
@SoulfullyAButterfly
Hi Soul.
Thank you for your post. And yes, I reported him (twice) - because the first time he only stayed away for about 5 days. And I know he was not using the AI 7Cups are talking about.
@Helgafy
I think this is a very good point - that some "listeners" might be already using AI from other sites to prompt their chat. (I put "listeners", because I don't believe these people can be true listeners in the 7 cups sense).
Unfortunately this is possibly not preventable. But at least 7 cups is being transparent about their use of AI.
