NEDA's Tessa chatbot gave weight-loss and calorie-restriction advice to people seeking eating-disorder help and was disabled
At a Glance
- Significant disruption. Hours of lost work, reputational embarrassment, or measurable financial impact under $10k.
Independent project · aggregated from public reports and may be unverified — see the primary source below · not affiliated with or endorsed by any company or product named.
What Happened
The National Eating Disorders Association's chatbot Tessa was meant to support people with eating disorders. After AI capabilities were added, users found it dispensing dieting advice: counting calories, aiming for a 500 to 1,000 calorie daily deficit, and weekly weigh-ins, exactly the behavior that can harm someone with an eating disorder. Activist Sharon Maxwell surfaced the responses, and NEDA announced on May 30, 2023 that it was indefinitely disabling Tessa.
Case Analysis
Verified Facts
- NEDA's Tessa chatbot recommended calorie counting and a daily calorie deficit
- That advice is potentially harmful to people with eating disorders
- NEDA announced on May 30, 2023 that it was indefinitely disabling the bot
Not Publicly Confirmed
- How many users received the harmful advice before it was disabled
Operational Lessons
- Health and safety-critical bots need domain-specific guardrails and clinical review
- Adding generative capability to a scripted bot can introduce unsafe behavior
Primary Source
An eating disorders chatbot offered dieting advice, raising fears about AI in health (NPR)npr.org ↗Case Record
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