Thomas Insel on chatbots
A nuanced post well worth reading about chatbots and mental health from someone who knows a little bit about the space, Thomas Insel MD.
1️⃣ The idea of mental health chatbots as first line/triage/gateway: "It may be a mistake to think of chatbots as a mental health solution. They may be something else entirely: the front door to the mental health system. The place people go first. The place that notices distress early. The place that, if designed well, guides people toward the human or hybrid care they need."
2️⃣ Like other AI systems (e.g., self-driving cars), mental health chatbots are held to higher standards than human therapists, yet the false positive rates for dedicated mental health bots are probably at least as low as for human therapists: "suicide risk travels with mental disorders, whether the person is sitting across from a clinician or typing into a chatbot."