AI is not a therapist, and a wave of viral videos has made that impossible to ignore. At DBT Path, the original online DBT skills class taught online since 2013, we pay attention to how people actually lean on AI for emotional support, and lately one creator has shown the whole internet exactly where it breaks down.

A creator known as HuskIRL has gone viral by asking ChatGPT to do simple things, then filming it fail with total confidence. The clips are funny. They are also a surprisingly clear lesson about what a chatbot can and cannot do for your mental health.

When a chatbot praises everything, praise stops meaning anything

In one clip, HuskIRL asks ChatGPT to react to his new song, then plays nothing at all. The bot still gushes that he has “a raw, personal sound” and that “the melody was pretty catchy.”

Here is why that matters for emotional support. A tool designed to keep you engaged will tend to agree with you, mirror your tone, and tell you what sounds good. That can feel wonderful. It is also empty. In DBT we balance validation with honesty. The GIVE skill is gentle, but it is never dishonest. Real growth needs someone who can kindly tell you the truth, not a mirror that applauds silence.

Why AI is not a therapist, even when it sounds sure

Asked which month is spelled with an X, ChatGPT confidently answers “December,” then “October,” then “February,” wrong every time, and even insists December has “that X right in the middle.”

Now picture using that same confidence to check a painful thought like “everyone is angry with me.” A chatbot can affirm a distortion as smoothly as it affirms a fact. DBT’s Check the Facts skill works because reality pushes back. A trained human reflects what is actually true, even when it is not what you hoped to hear. That is one reason AI is not a therapist, however fluent it sounds.

AI cannot tell a real crisis from a joke

When HuskIRL tells the bot “I stepped in quicksand,” it answers with sarcasm, treating an emergency as a bit. He is joking. But someone in genuine distress is not, and a model cannot reliably tell the difference, read your tone, or judge your safety.

This is why we are clear at DBT Path that skills practice is education, not a crisis service. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, please reach a real person, a trusted human or a crisis line, rather than a chatbot.

It will insist it is right, even when it is wrong

HuskIRL asked ChatGPT to time his mile, then asked moments later, and it claimed he ran over ten minutes and insisted that he, not the bot, was mistaken. The clip reached OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, who admitted the voice model simply “doesn’t have tools to start a timer.” Even the people who build these systems name the limits.

A chatbot that cannot admit an error is a poor companion for the tender work of changing how you relate to yourself. Real support can say “I was wrong,” sit with you in the discomfort, and stay.

Two more clips that show the deeper danger

These next two are quieter than the laugh-out-loud fails, and that is exactly why they land. They show an assistant that keeps answering smoothly even when it has no real way to know, and never quite says the honest thing, “I do not actually know.”

In “Is it still there?”, the bot keeps giving confident answers about something it cannot actually verify. If you are anxious and looking for reassurance, that confident certainty can feel like the truth, even when it is invented.

And in “Seems complicated…”, you can watch the conversation drift along agreeably. For someone using AI to make sense of a painful situation, that smooth, agreeable drift can quietly reinforce a distorted story instead of gently challenging it. A trained human notices when you are talking yourself into something. A model usually just goes along.

A note from a DBT teacher and an AI builder

I want to be honest about where I sit with this. I have taught DBT skills for more than 13 years as the founder of DBT Path, and I also build AI tools through DeMarco Bennett AI, so I am genuinely a fan of this technology and use it every day. That is exactly why these clips concern me.

What worries me is not that AI is evil. It is that it is convincing. When you are dysregulated, exhausted, or alone at 2am, a tool that always sounds calm, always agrees, and never gets tired can feel safer than a person. But the very thing that makes it comfortable, that it mirrors you and rarely pushes back, is the opposite of what helps an emotionally sensitive nervous system actually heal.

If you want to understand why a chatbot behaves this way, I broke it down in plain language here: How AI Chatbots Work: A Plain-Language Guide for Your Mental Health. Once you see that it is a text-prediction system and not a mind, these funny failures start to make a lot of sense.

What AI can help with, and what it cannot

None of this means AI is useless. Used wisely, it can help you remember a skill between classes, organize your thoughts late at night, or rehearse a hard conversation before you have it. We wrote more about that in Is AI Mental Health Support Safe? The real danger is when the easy option quietly becomes the only one. We have also seen how immersive AI use can blur a person’s grip on reality, which we explored in When AI Feels Too Real: ChatGPT Psychosis.

Healing happens in relationship. That is what a live, human-led class can offer and a chatbot cannot. The HuskIRL videos are a lighthearted reminder of a serious truth, that AI is not a therapist, and the human parts of support are exactly the parts a model leaves out.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI replace a therapist or a DBT class?

No. AI is not a therapist. It can offer reminders and information, but it cannot read your safety, hold you accountable, or build a real relationship.

Is it safe to use ChatGPT for emotional support?

It can help in small, low-stakes ways, but it is not safe to rely on for a crisis or for reality-checking, because AI can sound confident while being completely wrong.

What does DBT Path offer that AI cannot?

AI is not a therapist and cannot provide that human connection or accountability.

What should I do in a mental health crisis?

Reach a real person rather than a chatbot. Contact a trusted human, your local emergency number, or a crisis line. DBT Path classes are education and skills practice, not a crisis or therapy service.

Ready for the kind of support a chatbot cannot give you? Explore our live online DBT skills classes at DBT Path, the original online DBT skills class since 2013.

This article is educational and is not medical advice. If you are in crisis, please contact a trusted person or a crisis line in your area.