内容摘要：caused problems for England's men's team throughout the 2000s.

caused problems for England's men's team throughout the 2000s.

"The fact that this is not a real person is so much easier to handle."People around the world have shared their private thoughts and experiences with AI chatbots, even though they are widely acknowledged as inferior to seeking professional advice. Character.ai itself tells its users: "This is an AI chatbot and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction. What is said should not be relied upon as fact or advice."

But in extreme examples chatbots have been accused of giving harmful advice.Character.ai is currently the subject of legal action from a mother whose 14-year-old son took his own life after reportedly becoming obsessed with one of its AI characters. According to transcripts of their chats in court filings he discussed ending his life with the chatbot. In a final conversation he told the chatbot he was "coming home" - and it allegedly encouraged him to do so "as soon as possible".Character.ai has denied the suit's allegations.

And in 2023, the National Eating Disorder Association replaced its live helpline with a chatbot, but later had to suspend it over claims the bot was recommending calorie restriction.In April 2024 alone, nearly 426,000 mental health referrals were made in England - a rise of 40% in five years. An estimated one million people are also waiting to access mental health services, and private therapy can be prohibitively expensive (costs vary greatly, but the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy reports on average people spend £40 to £50 an hour).

At the same time, AI has revolutionised healthcare in many ways, including helping to screen, diagnose and triage patients. There is a huge spectrum of chatbots, and about 30 local NHS services now use one called Wysa.

Experts express concerns about chatbots around potential biases and limitations, lack of safeguarding and the security of users' information. But some believe that if specialist human help is not easily available, chatbots can be a help. So with NHS mental health waitlists at record highs, are chatbots a possible solution?There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called "a major national dialogue" in 2019.

Although the talks established a special status for the country's two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical terms.Felix Agbor Nkongho - a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested - says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared.

"There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists," he tells BBC Africa Eye."But over the last two years, I don't think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?"