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Eating-disorder chatbot removed after giving harmful advice

The National Eating Disorders Association took its Tessa chatbot offline after testers received weight-loss and calorie-restriction advice that experts said could worsen eating disorders.

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CURRENT ASSESSMENT · REVISION 1
AWAY FROM DOOM37confidence 89/100

Why it moved the index

The incident exposed a concrete failure of substituting a vulnerable-user support channel with automated advice, while public testing and institutional withdrawal demonstrated practical human oversight and correction.

Assessment history

  1. R1
    Away 37 · confidence 89

    New June 2023 deployed chatbot failure and institutional countermeasure evidence.

    12 Aug 2026

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  1. DoomBench assesses “Eating-disorder chatbot removed after giving harmful advice” as evidence moving away from doom, with magnitude 37 and confidence 89 out of 100 in the human resilience category.

  2. The DoomBench assessment of “Eating-disorder chatbot removed after giving harmful advice” is based on reporting from NPR and records the editorial rationale, source quality, attribution, and revision history.

  3. DoomBench summarizes “Eating-disorder chatbot removed after giving harmful advice” as follows: The National Eating Disorders Association took its Tessa chatbot offline after testers received weight-loss and calorie-restriction advice...

    https://www.doombench.com/news/eating-disorder-chatbot-removed-after-giving-harmful-advice-2023-06-09