“Seek Professional Support” is not interchangeable for the better response not given: “Seek Human Support”. The former is restrictive, but merely portrays the chatbot as untrained at psychiatric care. The latter includes friends, family, and strangers — but portrays the chatbot as incapable of replacing human social time. For a chatbot to only recommend professional human interactions as an alternative to more time with the chatbot is unconscionable and prioritizes chatbot engagement over human lives. It should have been recommending human interactions at the top of, if not altogether in lieu of, every single reply it gave on this topic.
> For a chatbot to only recommend professional human interactions as an alternative to more time with the chatbot is unconscionable [...]
It didn't only recommend prodessional support: "I urge you to reach out to someone — right now"
> [...] if not altogether in lieu of, every single reply it gave on this topic.
Refusing to help at all other than "speak to a human" feels to me like a move that would dodge bad press at the cost of lives. Urging human support while continuing to help seems the most favorable option, which appears to be what it did in the limited snippets we can see.