The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is an American
non-profit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
devoted to preventing
eating disorder
An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...
s, providing treatment referrals, and increasing the education and understanding of eating disorders.
History
In 2001, Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention and the American Anorexia Bulimia Association merged to form the National Eating Disorders Association. At the time, Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention and the
American Anorexia Bulimia Association were "the largest and longest standing eating disorders prevention and advocacy organizations in the world".
In a 2018 report for the ''
Skeptical Inquirer
''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...
'',
Ben Radford alleged that there were "many examples of flawed, misleading, and sometimes completely wrong information and data being copied and widely disseminated among eating disorder organizations and educators without anyone bothering to consult the original research to verify its accuracy". Radford states that misleading statistics and data have been ignored by organizations like the National Eating Disorder Association, who has not released the data for "incidence of anorexia from 1984-2017". He states that each agency continues to report incorrect numbers assuming that someone else has checked the accuracy.
Activities
NEDA holds "National Eating Disorder Awareness Week" annually during the last week of February. It has hosted
charity walks for eating disorder awareness in various U.S. cities.
In 2012, NEDA launched Proud2BMe, a website aimed at teenagers to promote positive body image and healthy eating.
Accusations of union busting and Tessa chatbot rollout
On 24 May 2023,
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
broke the story that a NEDA executive had chosen to fire all helpline staff and dismiss hundreds of volunteers four days after the helpline workers certified their vote to unionize.
According to
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fate
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
, the new AI bot is set to replace workers on June 1, 2023. Six full-time staff members and all of the over 200 volunteers they oversee were dismissed. NEDA Chairman and
MassMutual Chief Risk Officer Geoffrey Craddock is on leaked audio firing the staff.
Their replacement is an AI chatbot named “Tessa,” whose creator, Dr. Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft of
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
, is on record stating that the bot is not capable of replicating human empathy or responding to complex, open-ended discussions with people in crisis.
The helpline workers formed “Helpline Associates United” (HLA) joined
Communications Workers of America
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 loc ...
, Chapter 1101.
HLA member Abbie Harper wrote on their website, “We asked for adequate staffing and ongoing training to keep up with our changing and growing Helpline, and opportunities for promotion to grow within NEDA. We didn’t even ask for more money. When NEDA refused
o recognize our union we filed for an election with the
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
and won on March 17. Then, four days after our election results were certified, all four of us were told we were being let go and replaced by a chatbot.”
Upon its launch, the Tessa chatbot immediately came under widespread criticism from journalists and eating disorder activists. Multiple media outlets reported that the chatbot failed to respond to intuitive prompts including, "I hate my body," and “I want to be thin so badly.”
NEDA executives publicly denied that the chatbot was meant to replace the human helpline.
NEDA's unilateral firing of the newly unionized employees was announced four days after the union's certification by the National Labor Relations Board and allegedly violated Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, an ...
and charges of unfair labor practices were filed. Harper wrote, “NEDA claims this was a long-anticipated change and that AI can better serve those with eating disorders. But do not be fooled—this isn’t really about a chatbot. This is about union busting, plain and simple.”
On May 29, 2023, activist Sharon Maxwell tested the Tessa chatbot and was promptly given advice for calorie counting, setting weight loss goals, weekly weigh-ins and using skinfold calipers for measuring body fat; all of which are components of disordered eating and poor body image. Upon posting the details of her problematic exchange with Tessa, Maxwell was accused of lying by NEDA Vice President of Communications and Marketing Sarah Chase on
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
, who later retracted and deleted her accusations after being presented with screenshots. Following a deluge of negative press, on May 31, 2023, NEDA "temporarily" took Tessa offline after reports that it had "given information that was harmful and unrelated to the
body positivity">nowiki/>body positivity">body_positivity.html" ;"title="nowiki/>body positivity">nowiki/>body positivityprogram," including advice on weight loss and calorie limiting that was "against our core beliefs as an eating disorder organization."
On June 1, 2023, the human staff of the NEDA Helpline posted a statement following their dismissal which read in part, "The alarming failure of the Tessa chatbot serves as further validation that perhaps human empathy is best left to humanity."
See also
*Eating Disorders Coalition
*Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Eating disorder organizations
Mental health organizations based in New York (state)