How do you expect something to go from “toy” to “viable” if people are not stepping up to build upon the body of knowledge? A lot of people who have created innovative solutions were likely, by your definition, to be among the “least needed” people in a space.
Maybe you would benefit by trying to understand why a harmless toy and proof-of-concept is so threatening.
the words toy and mental health should never be mixed together. this is exactly why it is threatening. someone cavalier enough to think that a group of computer programmers throwing together a chatBot to interact with mental health is just, well, mental.
We cannot let fear stall innovation because of someone might use it incorrectly.
This isn't a case of "manning up" and doing something scary. We're not astronauts going to the moon or any other situation where the decisions made will only affect you. This is a matter that when the product is misused or has a "glitch", it is not the maker that suffers.
The fact that you will not even acknowledge this just proves maybe you are not the right person for this.
I get people wanting to be FIRST in a space, but they seem to continuously be the people least needing to be first. Will this ever be something viable? maybe, but it definitely is not now. Yes, it can't get there without going through the growing pains, but let's work those pains out in less detrimental areas first. Areas with much less fallout when it does go wrong