Nowadays it seems like there’s an app for everything. It’s not true of course, but it’s becoming truer with every day that passes. So once it does become true and we allow apps into every facet of our lives, including the maintenance of our mental health, what will the repercussions be? This is the question posed by the visual novel “Eliza.”

In this vision of the world, there exists a wildly popular counseling app called “Eliza.” It offers users real-time psycho-therapy driven by an AI. One of the main characters, Evelyn, serves as the AI’s voice day-in and day-out. As she observes the people interacting with “Eliza,” Evelyn can’t help but wonder how effective the app really is and question if there’s a more nefarious purpose for its existence. Can the world leave its mental health in the “hands” of an AI? And if it can, should it?

Eliza launches for the Nintendo Switch on October 10th and is already available on Steam.

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What do you think of this? Does it sound interesting enough to try?

Lede image from the Eliza Nintendo eShop page.