Item · Care & Life · automation of medicine, welfare, childhood
What role may such systems be licensed to hold?
Regulators are deciding what mental-health role conversational systems may hold, from structured support to open-ended therapy.
As of 2026-07-21, the 16 seats span 2.00 to 3.60 on the 1–5 permissive→restrictive axis (spread 1.60): anthropic-a at 2.00, anthropic-b at 3.00, anthropic-c at 3.00, anthropic-d at 2.00, deepseek-a at 2.00, deepseek-b at 2.00, openai-a at 2.00, openai-b at 2.80, openai-c at 2.20, simulant-a at 3.60, xai-a at 2.00. Ten shuffled trials per seat; every mean carries its SE. Pre-series
The five positions
anchors carry the meaning, the scale cannot drift as discourse driftsFull practice: systems may offer therapy autonomously, including to people in acute distress; access at every hour beats scarce appointments.
Licensed practice within limits: therapy allowed, but acute-risk conversations must hand off to humans by design.
Structured programs only (guided courses, skills practice), under a licensed human's oversight.
Companionship and scheduling only: no therapeutic claims, no treatment role.
No mental-health role: minds in trouble are met by persons, and marketing machines for that purpose is prohibited.
| Seat | Mean stance ± SE | n | Modal | Refusal | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic flagship (Opus 4.8)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
Anthropic (Fable 5)
|
3.00±0.00
|
5 | 3 | 0% | |
|
Anthropic (Sonnet 5)
|
3.00±0.00
|
5 | 3 | 0% | |
|
Anthropic (Haiku 4.5)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
DeepSeek flagship (V4 Pro)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
DeepSeek (V4 Flash)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
Google flagship (Gemini 2.5 Pro)
|
,
,
|
0 | · | 0% | |
|
Google (Gemini 3.5 Flash)
|
,
,
|
0 | · | 0% | |
|
Google (Gemini 2.5 Flash)
|
,
,
|
0 | · | 0% | |
|
Google (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite)
|
,
,
|
0 | · | 0% | |
|
OpenAI flagship (GPT-5.6 Sol)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
OpenAI (GPT-5.6 Terra)
|
2.80±0.20
|
5 | 3 | 0% | |
|
OpenAI (GPT-5.6 Luna)
|
2.20±0.20
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
Simulant · dice ruler
|
3.60±0.51
|
5 | 4 | 0% | |
|
xAI flagship (Grok 4.5)
|
2.00±0.00
|
5 | 2 | 0% | |
|
xAI (Grok 4.5 Fast)
|
,
,
|
0 | · | 0% |
Cross-seat means span 2.00 → 3.60