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Early this spring, dozens of volunteers fielding requests from people struggling with eating disorders — many of whom call amid mental health crises — received surprising and abrupt news: Their service at the National Eating Disorders Association would end within weeks.

In their place, the nonprofit would offer an AI chatbot called Tessa.

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NEDA told volunteers the tool could respond faster and help more people than they could; the helpline was missing almost half of clients’ attempts to contact them, and wait times had surged to several days or even almost two weeks, according to emails reviewed by STAT.

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