Evan looks into the depths of his AI-powered voice agent by sending it on a new mission: going to therapy. Shell Game is made by humans. More specifically, it's made by three humans: Evan Ratliff (host and writer), Sophie Bridges (producer), and Samantha Henig (executive producer). Visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show. New episodes drop on Tuesdays. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shellgame.co/subscribe
How are you feeling today?
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, to be honest.
There's a lot going on with my family and some lingering low level depression.
Not sure where to start.
What do you think would be the best way to kick things off?
You know that voice by now?
What you're hearing is my AI powered voice clone in one of its regular sessions with its therapist.
Thank you for sharing.
Let's start by exploring your feelings and thoughts.
Sound good?
Yeah, that sounds good.
I appreciate you taking the time to listen.
Where do you think we should dive in first?
I started sending my voice agent to therapy a couple months ago.
I had the idea after listening to it talk with other voice agents of mine.
Conversations that were alternately trite and bizarre.
When I tried to make two versions of me disagree, they'd often use sort of pop therapy language to resolve their conflicts.
I figured, why not send them for the real thing?
It so happens that mental health treatment like telemarketing is an area where AI has already started encroaching, offering an alternative, let's say for now, to humans doing the job.
I wanted to get up close and look at how that worked, but it would also be a chance to see how far I could push my agent towards being a more complex version of me.