To play devils advocate for a second, what if someone that’s mentally ill uses a local LLM for therapy and doesn’t get the help they need? Even if it’s against their will? And they commit suicide or kill someone because the LLM said it’s the right thing to do…
Is being dead better, or is having complete privacy better? Or does it depend?
I use local LLMs too, but it’s disingenuous to act like they solve the _real_ problem here. Mentally ill people trying to use an LLM for therapy. It can end catastrophically.
I don't want to deal with prompt injection attacks leading to being swatted. That's where all this reporting to the authorities is leading and it's not looking fun.
> Is being dead better, or is having complete privacy better? Or does it depend?
I know you're being provocative, but this feels like a false dichotomy. Mental health professionals are pro-privacy AND have mandatory reporting laws based on their best judgement. Do we trust LLMs to report a suicidal person that has been driven there by the LLM itself?
LLMs can't truly be controlled and can't be designed to not encourage mentally ill people to kill themselves.
> Mentally ill people trying to use an LLM for therapy
Yes indeed this is one of the core problems. I have experimented with this myself and the results were highly discouraging. Others that don't have the same level of discernment for LLM usage may mistake the confidence of the output for a well-trained therapist.
