National Eating Disorders Association

On 24 May 2023, NPR broke the story that a NEDA executive had chosen to fire all helpline staff and dismiss hundreds of volunteers four days after the helpline workers certified their vote to unionize.[12][13] According to Fortune, the new AI bot is set to replace workers on June 1, 2023.[14] Six full-time staff members and all of the over 200 volunteers they oversee were dismissed.[15] NEDA Chairman and MassMutual Chief Risk Officer Geoffrey Craddock is on leaked audio firing the staff.[16][12] Their replacement is an AI chatbot named “Tessa,” whose creator, Dr. Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft of Washington University of St. Louis, is on record stating that the bot is not capable of replicating human empathy or responding to complex, open-ended discussions with people in crisis.[12]

The helpline workers formed “Helpline Associates United” joined Communications Workers of America, Chapter 1101.[17] HLA member Abbie Harper wrote on their website, “We asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with our changing and growing Helpline, and opportunities for promotion to grow within NEDA. We didn’t even ask for more money. When NEDA refused [to recognize our union], we filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and won on March 17. Then, four days after our election results were certified, all four of us were told we were being let go and replaced by a chatbot.”[18] Upon its launch, the Tessa chatbot immediately came under widespread criticism from journalists and eating disorder activists. Multiple media outlets reported that the chatbot failed to respond to intuitive prompts including, "I hate my body," and “I want to be thin so badly.”[19][20] NEDA executives publicly denied that the chatbot was meant to replace the human helpline.[12] NEDA’s unilateral firing of the newly unionized employees was announced four days after the union’s certification by the National Labor Relations Board and allegedly violated Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act and charges of unfair labor practices were filed.[21][22] Harper wrote, “NEDA claims this was a long-anticipated change and that AI can better serve those with eating disorders. But do not be fooled—this isn’t really about a chatbot. This is about union busting, plain and simple.”[17]

On May 29, 2023, activist Sharon Maxwell tested the Tessa chatbot and was promptly given advice for calorie counting, setting weight loss goals, weekly weigh-ins and using skinfold calipers for measuring body fat; all of which are components of disordered eating and poor body image.[23] Upon posting the details of her problematic exchange with Tessa, Maxwell was accused of lying by NEDA Vice President of Communications and Marketing Sarah Chase on Twitter, who later retracted and deleted her accusations after being presented with screenshots.[24] Following a deluge of negative press, on May 31, 2023, NEDA "temporarily" took Tessa offline after reports that it had "given information that was harmful and unrelated to the [body positivity] program," including advice on weight loss and calorie limiting that was "against our core beliefs as an eating disorder organization."[25] On June 1, 2023, the human staff of the NEDA Helpline posted a statement following their dismissal which read in part, "The alarming failure of the Tessa chatbot serves as further validation that perhaps human empathy is best left to humanity."[26]