Would you use an AI therapist?

Okay, so...

...would you use an AI therapist?

[a light, fun percussive beat begins]

Artificial intelligence and therapy actually goes way back to the 1960s.

Meet ELIZA, the world's first ever AI chatbot.

Written with just 420 lines of code,

it was designed by this guy to mimic the language of a psychotherapist.

60 years later...

chatbots have come a long, long way.

Now they can edit passive aggressive emails to sound more friendly,

plan holidays in seconds, [camera shutters]

and DJ your party on command. [music scratching, mixing together]

As well as acting as your 24/7 therapist.

But let's be clear.

AI therapy is just one of the many stages

in mental health’s digital revolution.

So much has already happened.

There are algorithms that analyse speech to spot early signs of psychosis.

Apps that use a simple game of Tetris

to help your brain reprocess a traumatic memory.

[triumpant game SFX]

We've even got digital avatars that help patients process the voices they hear.

[drum stops, sparkling music begins]

Today, the brains behind AI are promising less admin for therapists,

improved training,

and perhaps most promisingly, easier access to mental health care.

Sounds impressive, right?

Well, when it comes to AI and therapy,

there’s a lot of different views out there.

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[...and pick up again]

So most therapy is a conversation.

And conversation is something AI is getting pretty good at.

[Narrator] The more powerful models are trained on tonnes of existing written material,

identifying common ways each word is used,

using that data to piece together a reply to your message.

But not every mental health chatbot works the same.

One might scan for super-specific words,

like a symptom you typed out, to trigger a reply.

One might be slightly more rigid,

giving you a list of messages to pick from,

each with a prewritten response.

[a digital trill echoes into a drum beat]

[Narrator] When used for therapy,

some people have mentioned how they like the warmth, companionship,

and the advice of the chatbot.

One described their conversation as a safe space.

This study found that an AI model trained on medical data

has the potential to help people reframe their negative thoughts.

Another concluded that chatbots are just as effective as human therapists

for those with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

However, not everyone has experiences like this.

Some research found that others are more frustrated,

saying their conversations feel empty, generic, and not knowledgeable enough.

[train rumbling, chugging past]

[Narrator] Those with lived experience of mental health conditions

conditions have already questioned

whether replacing a human therapist with a chatbot could increase isolation.

Which is exactly what one study by researchers at MIT and OpenAI found.

[Narrator] To add to that,

most AI chatbots are trained on English language data,

often from Western contexts.

This raises questions about how well they serve people from different cultures,

or those who don't speak English as a first language.

[a dissatisfied error beep]

[Narrator] If training data has a narrow cultural view,

AI might ignore important nuances and contexts in your messages.

Or reinforce harmful stereotypes around race, gender, and sexuality.

Which could widen existing inequalities.

And of course, it's not just chatbots.

Your human therapist can hold these biases too.

Either way, whether it's AI or face to face,

those developing the therapy must always work closely with the communities they want to help.

They also need to collaborate with ethics experts to make sure

the training is inclusive and the support is safe.

If we do this properly, AI could be part of the solution

to offering a more effective, consistent approach to mental health care.

Like one chatbot currently used by the UK's National Health Service.

So far, it's already making a difference...

with faster referral times and nearly every user finding the chatbot helpful.

Joyce is actually working on something similar,

focusing on speech recognition,

powering hospital call centers with AI so more patients can get the care they need.

[Narrator] Although, yes, AI might be capable of speeding up assessments,

staff training,

note-taking,

or even the waitlist for human therapy,

a lot of people have concerns about how all this data is being used and protected.

[Narrator] So, who's regulating the chatbot therapists?

And what policies do we need to protect everyone?

Or if things really do go wrong while someone is under the care of AI...

...what happens to them?

Clearly, the role of artificial intelligence in mental health poses lots of questions.

We should approach it with caution.

But at the same time,

there’s this massive potential to expand healthcare access for those who need it most.

[a sparkling, gleeful flourish]

To make sure that potential is realised in the right way,

breakthroughs in technology need to be paired with the right regulation,

involving those with lived experience at every stage.

So, one more time... [keyboard typing, popping]

...would you use an AI therapist?

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