Innovative Horizons--The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Mental Health Evaluation

Course overview

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health professionals scrambled to embrace a technology that only 5-to-10% of them had previously dabbled in--telehealth. Just as many of us felt like we'd achieved at least a moderate level of competency in telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as yet another mysterious, exciting, and--perhaps--deeply concerning technology to contend with, creating a slew of relevant questions: Can AI help me write my reports or with differential diagnosis? With writing articles for publication? Does AI perpetuate ethnoracial stereotypes? Is it true that some clients are recording their interactions with mental health professionals (without their consent) and then selling those recording to tech developers who are working on developing AI-powered therapy bots? Will AI make mental health professionals obsolete? Has Cyberdyne come to destroy us all? (Okay, that last one's a little over the top...or is it?). This presentation was designed to offer an overview of how AI can (and already has) impacted mental health evaluation, as well as strategies for ethical and impactful use of AI from authoritative organizations within the mental health professions.