The Hindu (Thiruvananthapuram)
AI chatbots to help with your mental health, despite limited evidence they work
Download the mental health chatbot Earkick and you’re greeted by a bandanawearing panda who could easily fit into a kids’ cartoon.
Start talking or typing about anxiety and the app generates the kind of comforting, sympathetic statements therapists are trained to deliver. The panda might then suggest a guided breathing exercise, ways to reframe negative thoughts or stressmanagement tips.
It’s all part of a wellestablished approach used by therapists, but please don’t call it therapy, says Earkick cofounder Karin Andrea Stephan.
“When people call us a form of therapy, that’s OK, but we don’t want to go out there and tout it,” says Stephan, a former professional musician and selfdescribed serial entrepreneur. The question of whether these artificial intelligencebased chatbots are delivering a mental health service or are simply a new form of selfhelp is critical to the emerging digital health industry — and its survival.
But there’s limited data that they actually improve mental health. And none of the leading companies have gone through the FDA approval process to show they effectively treat conditions like depression.
The U.K.’s National Health Service has also begun offering a chatbot called Wysa to help with stress, anxiety and depression among adults and teens.
Ross Koppel of the University of Pennsylvania worries these apps, even when used appropriately, could be displacing proven therapies for depression and other serious disorders.
“There’s a diversion effect of people who could be getting help either through counselling or medication who are instead diddling with a chatbot,” said Koppel, who studies health information technology.