America is undergoing a full-on mental health crisis, and a lot of people are turning to AI therapists. It’s now common to criticize AI therapists—shouldn’t we be helping people see actual humans , people argue? Well, yes. But the thing is: healthcare is pretty broken, and access to care is gated.

These technological advances come at a time when the need for mental health care is particularly acute: According to a report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five adults in the United States experienced mental illness in 2020. And the numbers continue to climb.