ENG3702
ASSIGNMENT 2 2025
UNIQUE NO.
DUE DATE: 15 JULY 2025
, Title: The Illusion of Neutrality: Discourse, Audience, and Genre in AI-Driven
Therapy
Introduction
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in recent years has ushered
in transformative changes across various sectors, with the field of mental health therapy
increasingly becoming a site of experimentation and implementation. Generative AI
(gen-AI) platforms such as ChatGPT, Copilot, GROK, and Gemini have emerged as
interactive tools capable of generating human-like responses, thereby challenging
traditional boundaries of professional roles in psychological support and counseling.
These platforms are being positioned as cost-effective, scalable, and accessible
solutions to global mental health challenges, particularly in contexts where professional
therapists are scarce or prohibitively expensive.
However, the deployment of gen-AI in therapeutic contexts reveals a complex web of
assumptions, particularly regarding the neutrality of AI-driven discourse. At first glance,
AI appears to operate within a framework of impartiality, offering standardized,
unbiased, and consistent responses. Yet this perception of neutrality is illusory.
Language, context, data training, and platform design all contribute to the ways in which
gen-AI constructs meaning and interacts with users. This essay explores how
discourse, audience perception, and genre coalesce in the shaping of AI-driven therapy
and argues that the perceived neutrality of AI in this domain conceals deeper structural,
cultural, and epistemological biases. Through a critical analysis of language use, user
engagement, and genre redefinition, this paper demonstrates that AI-driven therapy is
far from neutral; rather, it is a socio-technical system deeply embedded in normative
frameworks.
Discourse and the Illusion of Objectivity
ASSIGNMENT 2 2025
UNIQUE NO.
DUE DATE: 15 JULY 2025
, Title: The Illusion of Neutrality: Discourse, Audience, and Genre in AI-Driven
Therapy
Introduction
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in recent years has ushered
in transformative changes across various sectors, with the field of mental health therapy
increasingly becoming a site of experimentation and implementation. Generative AI
(gen-AI) platforms such as ChatGPT, Copilot, GROK, and Gemini have emerged as
interactive tools capable of generating human-like responses, thereby challenging
traditional boundaries of professional roles in psychological support and counseling.
These platforms are being positioned as cost-effective, scalable, and accessible
solutions to global mental health challenges, particularly in contexts where professional
therapists are scarce or prohibitively expensive.
However, the deployment of gen-AI in therapeutic contexts reveals a complex web of
assumptions, particularly regarding the neutrality of AI-driven discourse. At first glance,
AI appears to operate within a framework of impartiality, offering standardized,
unbiased, and consistent responses. Yet this perception of neutrality is illusory.
Language, context, data training, and platform design all contribute to the ways in which
gen-AI constructs meaning and interacts with users. This essay explores how
discourse, audience perception, and genre coalesce in the shaping of AI-driven therapy
and argues that the perceived neutrality of AI in this domain conceals deeper structural,
cultural, and epistemological biases. Through a critical analysis of language use, user
engagement, and genre redefinition, this paper demonstrates that AI-driven therapy is
far from neutral; rather, it is a socio-technical system deeply embedded in normative
frameworks.
Discourse and the Illusion of Objectivity
