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Id, Ego & A.I.

Slingshot, which counts a16z as an investor, recently launched “Ash,” a new therapy chatbot that’s being billed as a cheap pocket shrink. Is this an improvement on the current anthropomorphizing of ChatGPT, a preview of the inevitable, or just a really bad idea?

HER movie
With Ash, there’s no perception of shame or judgment, co-founder Neil Parikh said: “People will open up in 10 minutes and say things that they’ve never said out loud before to another human, precisely because there is no human.” Photo: ©Warner Bros. Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Ian Krietzberg
September 4, 2025

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When I told “Ash,” an A.I. therapist, that one of my best friends had just moved to Boston, it spit out something that, to my surprise, sort of had an impact on my life. Ash acknowledged the loss, and asked whether we had tried to keep in touch over the phone. I admitted that we could do a better job. And while it felt strange taking advice from a chatbot—and while I was fully planning on doing this anyway—I sent my friend a text the next day. In the end, the suggestion acted as a timely reminder that didn’t hurt to hear. (Sorry, Ethan.)