Access vs The Human Element of Care: Ethical Challenges for AI Chatbots in Mental Healthcare
Thursday, October 12, 2023
4:00 PM – 5:15 PM ET
Location: Falkland (Fourth Floor)
One in five Americans live with mental illness and many are unable to reliably access basic care. Relative to need, there is a growing shortage of mental healthcare resources. AI chatbots have the potential to revolutionize the field of mental health. The challenge is to find a way to reap their potential benefits while preserving and promoting the humanity integral to caring therapeutic relationships. In this paper we do not purport to definitively resolve this tension but rather clarify the ethical stakes and offer some recommendations. AI chatbots offer numerous potential benefits for basic mental healthcare. For underserved populations it would lower barriers to entry since these tools are relatively cheap and highly accessible. It also allows patients to access care while avoiding social stigma and shame associated with some mental health conditions. Finally, some users prefer chat applications to live therapy and find it effective. However, there are also potentially serious costs to unreflective deployment. Some psychological conditions like anxiety and depression can be exacerbated by the loss of genuine human contact. There appears to be something perverse about directing patients with these conditions to an app rather than a therapist. Furthermore, there will be strong economic pressures for insurance companies and governmental agencies to set AI therapy apps as the default mental health care. The issue is not whether to introduce AI chatbots into mental healthcare or not, but rather how, for whom, and according to what value trade-offs. We consider potential solutions.
Dave Schwan – Philosophy and Comparative Religion – Central Washington University