With mental health services stretched thin, many individuals are seeking solace in AI-driven chatbots. However, experts caution that these tools, while innovative, cannot fully mirror the human connection and may introduce unforeseen risks.
Pierre Cote endured years of frustration on public health waitlists, desperately seeking a therapist to address his PTSD and depression. When traditional avenues failed him, he took an unconventional step: he created his own solution.
“It changed everything for me,” Cote says of DrEllis.ai, an AI-powered platform crafted to assist men grappling with addiction, trauma, and other mental health struggles. Cote, who operates an AI consultancy in Quebec, shared with Reuters that he developed the tool in 2023, leveraging open-source large language models and embedding it with a “custom-designed intelligence” derived from thousands of pages of therapeutic and clinical resources. Much like a human therapist, the chatbot comes with a detailed backstory — fictional yet profoundly personal. DrEllis.ai is portrayed as a skilled psychiatrist with credentials from Harvard and Cambridge, a family life, and a French-Canadian heritage that mirrors Cote’s own.
Above all, it’s always accessible: anywhere, anytime, and in multiple languages.