In February 2023, New Yorker asked: "Can AI treat mental illness?" In the post-ChatGPT world, votaries of artificial intelligence who make bombastic claims about its magic powers would have you believe that this question is redundant.
Take Lilian Weng, head of safety systems at Open AI, the company that created ChatGPT. Weng proposes that people who only use ChatGPT as a productivity tool should give it a try for therapy.
This is what Weng wrote in a lyrical post on X after interacting with ChatGPT's voice mode (Open AI announced the innovation in a blog with a terrifying headline):
"Just had a quite emotional, personal conversation w/ ChatGPT in voice mode, talking about stress, work-life balance. Interestingly I felt heard & warm. Never tried therapy before but this is probably it?"
Here's the thing: Whether AI can compete with or replace human therapists is mostly clickbait.
What we really ought to be talking about is how technology can act as an aid to mental health professionals, improving the quality of care and breaking new ground in a profession that can be notoriously stodgy and resistant to innovation.
I have researched this topic for years, spoken with experts working at the intersection of tech and mental health care, and written multiple deep dives on it for international publications.
In this special 2-hour session, I will take you through the most important, exciting, and scary insights I've learned along the way.