AI And Mental Health Focus Of Latest Cornell 'Summit'

There can be significant barriers to seeing a therapist: high costs, long waitlists and difficulty finding a therapist who is the right fit. Tiktok users had one idea that churned up nearly 17 million posts in March alone: What about using ChatGPT as a therapist?

Qian Yang, assistant professor of information science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, sees this convergence of mental health and consumer-facing artificial intelligence into a moment of TikTok virality as a sign that a broader shift is underway.

"The line between consumer AI systems, like ChatGPT and Apple Watch, that can support well-being and clinical AI built for mental health care is increasingly blurred," Yang said at the opening of the Cornell Thought Summit, "Everyday AI & Mental Health: Navigating a Tipping Point," which took place June 16-20 in Gates Hall. "The potential for this integration between everyday AI that people use and the clinical AI that doctors use allows for step-by-step interventions that are more responsive to people's everyday condition. That vision is very enticing."

In an ideal world, consumer-facing AI, such as wearables and therapy bots that monitor a person's health, would integrate seamlessly with a clinician's AI-powered tools and safely transfer useful, actionable patient health data. Such integration would improve patient health and efficiency and make doctors' jobs a little easier. But we aren't there yet, Yang said.

"It is quite complicated to build AI systems and mine insights from these mixed data sources," she said. That, and healthcare - together with the legal, technological, and economic factors that govern it - are so complex as it is, she said.

Read the full story on the Cornell Bowers website.

/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.