Munich: The first Europe-wide expert working group on Artificial Intelligence in mental health launches today to the ECNP congress in Munich, where the group will host an open discussion, setting out the potential, the problems, and possible directions for AI in psychiatry and neuroscience. Going forward, the group will set out plans to guide the regulation and development of artificial intelligence (AI) in mental health in Europe.
Group Chair, Dr Paris Alexandros Lalousis (of King's College, London) said.
"AI is developing at a rapid pace. It offers great opportunities in mental health, but the development of AI also needs to be guided, communicated, and regulated, and this is something that is missing at the moment. The group will set out a framework for understanding the risks and benefits of applying AI in mental health, with recommendations on how we take the field forward. We are the first group to undertake such a challenge. We will map the field, so that Europe-wide resources are available for researchers to understand who is doing what, who is regulating AI, and so on. The aim is to produce a level-headed, expert-driven framework which will deal with the major issues".
The group is being established by the ECNP, which is Europe's largest clinical neuroscience organisation, with interests stretching from psychiatry through to drug development, psychology, and neuroscience.
Co-Chair Tim Hahn (from the University of Muenster, Germany) added:
"Our working group comprises 19 experts, from Europe and the US. We have already developed an initial work plan for the next 3 years, and we are now meeting with the wider psychiatric and neuroscience community to feedback and refine our plans.
We are aiming for a coordinated AI framework at a European level. There are many talented people across Europe working in the field, but often they work in silos, and we need to enable communication and interaction. So I think my message would be that whether you see AI through a positive lens or a negative lens, we would like to have you engage with us".
The working group currently has 19 members from Europe and the US, who undertake research in a variety of fields, for example using basic machine learning to do drug discovery, patient concerns, basic neuroscience, through to building and evaluating chatbots.
Tim Hahn continued, "We have a great variety of expertise, but even so the biggest challenge is going to be to really understand what people are doing right now and where should we insert ourselves as a group, as a network, to provide guidance. We want to establish a structure for this huge amount of information".
